The two partners of China's first cross-border industrial park, Macao and Zhuhai, launched the first joint investment promotion for the project Tuesday.

So far, the park seating on a reclaimed plot encompassing 290,000 square meters in Zhuhai and 110,000 square meters in Macao has drew six projects all invested by Macao entrepreneurs in brand garment manufacturing and high-precision mechanism production.

"The park will take advantages of favorable policies in China's Special Administrative Region of Macao and the Special Economic Region of Zhuhai City. It is a good experiment in China's regional economic cooperation under two different economic systems," said Francis Tam Pak Yuen, Macao's secretary for economic and finance.

Protected by China's "one country, two systems" principle, Macao has retained its free market economic system and independent status in the World Trade Organization after its return to the motherland in 1999. Macao's trade with its neighboring city of Zhuhai is conducted under separate customs jurisdictions.

Land reclamation work of the cross-border industrial park, which began construction in March, has been done. The business invitation work will proceed with the infrastructure building, which is scheduled to end by the end of November.

The park is expected to help solve worries about Macao's wavering advantage on textile exports accompanied with the removal of global export quota on textile products in 2005, and even broaden its market scope by making full use of favorable policies brought by the Mainland/Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) signed in October last year.

With the approval from China's State Council, the park will be managed in mode of a bonded zone enjoying advantages of cheap labor in the mainland and Macao's traditional trade links with American and European markets to develop brand textile products and garments, which are mainly for exports.