NANNING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The 2008 Pan-Beibu Bay Economic Cooperation Forum, with its theme of "co-build a new China-ASEAN growth pole," will be held on July 30 and 31 in Beihai City.

    The forum will focus on three topics: "pan-Beibu Bay economic cooperation in the unbalanced world economy," "difficulties and prospect in Pan-Beibu Bay sub-region cooperation" and "development and opening-up of the Beibu Bay Economic Zone", said a spokesman of the Guangxi regional government on a press conference on Tuesday

    With a population of 12.4 million, the economic zone covers 42,500 square kilometers of land and 130,000 square kilometers of sea.

    Most coastal economic activities in China are in three economic regions, the Pearl River delta, the Yangtze River delta, and the Bohai-ring. Economic activities in the Beibu Bay area are relatively backward.

    China's 11th five-year program for Western Development has placed the Beibu Bay economic zone as one of the three economic development zones in the west which enjoy priority in economic development.