BEIJING, Mar. 3 -- A proposal has been drawn up to extend the Hong Kong-Guangdong disease notification system to the entire Pan-Pearl River Delta.

    Three legislators and a member of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), all of whom are delegates to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), plan to submit their proposal to the CPPCC.

    The DAB members - Tam Yiu-chung, Tsang Yok-sing, Chan Kam-lam and Chang Hok-ming - held a press conference yesterday to announce their proposals to the national advisory body. In addition, they have three other proposals for Hong Kong and two for the mainland.

    The annual plenary session of the 10th National Committee of the CPPCC begins in Beijing today.

    The DAB delegates said yesterday they will voice Hong Kong people's concern over the existing notification system between the SAR and mainland health authorities in light of the recent discovery of red fire ants in the territory.

    The fire ants are believed to have entered Hong Kong from Shenzhen, where they were discovered in tangerine trees popular as Lunar New Year decorations.

    The incident stirred up scepticism on the efficiency of the notification system between Hong Kong and the mainland and the SAR government was criticized for being passive in obtaining information from the mainland.

    The DAB delegates hope the notification system should encompass the whole Pan-Pearl River Delta area and report more than diseases.

    "A more comprehensive notification mechanism must be established in which the entire Pan Pearl River Delta region should be covered. There are criticisms that the government failed to implement swift contingency measures hindered by the slow process of sharing information under the notification mechanism," Chan said.

    "Apart from diseases, the health authorities should notify each other if dangerous species were found or any incident posing a serious threat to public health happened."

    The DAB delegates will also submit a proposal on expanding the Individual Traveller Scheme to affluent coastal cities in Northeast China and East China, including Dalian and Qingdao.

    The number of mainland cities covered by the Individual Traveller Scheme has exceeded 30, compared with four when the scheme was launched in 2003.

    More than 150 million people from cities in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, as well as Beijing and Shanghai, are eligible.

    In addition, the party will urge the central government to relax restrictions for mainlanders to immigrate into Hong Kong through investment and for mainland primary and secondary students to study in the SAR.

    Tsang said it will be conducive to further boost the quality of SAR education and foster closer exchanges among students in the two places.

    Regarding a spate of coal mine explosions on the mainland, the DAB delegates planned to submit a proposal calling on the mainland authorities to step up work safety.

    More than 6,000 people died last year in explosions and other accidents in the mining industry, accounting for 80 per cent of the total mine fatalities around the world.

    The February 14 coal mine blast in Fuxin, Liaoning Province, was the country's deadliest coal mine accident, claiming 214 workers' lives.

    (Source: China Daily HK Edition/Eddie Luk)