Yangtze River Delta cities seek to strengthen ties in urbanization

As one of the most developed regions on the Chinese mainland, the Yangtze River Delta cities now seek to strengthen their ties in urbanization to achieve further growth.

Mayors of the 30 Yangtze River Delta cities gathered in Ma'ashan city of east China's Anhui province from March 26 to 27 for the 15th Yangtze River Delta Economic Coordination Meeting.

The cities were Shanghai and 29 other cities from Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.

As the topic varies every year, this year's meeting focused on new urbanization.

"Since the practical situation leaves China no choice but to look for new driving forces for growth, new urbanization will be a strong engine for the economy," said Zou Yong,an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, during the meeting on Friday.

In February, the country's top economic planning body announced it would carry out comprehensive pilot projects in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and Zhejiang province's Ningbo city to advance the new type of urbanization. Twenty-three of the pilot cities are members of the Yangzte River Delta.

The Delta region is expected to benefit from multiple national development strategies, including the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road Initiatives, the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

"The strategies bring the whole Yangtze River Delta region tremendous opportunities in the future", said Wei Yao, mayor of Ma'anshan city, the host city for the latest meeting of the 30 cities.

In light of the new opportunities, the cities seek to further strengthen their connection and enhance their cooperation mechanism, to compete with other regions, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster.

During the meeting, Zou said the NDRC hopes the 30 cities try to promote the comprehensive urbanization from four angles, which means far more than growth in urban population.

"The cities should first of all develop themselves well in economy, politics, society, culture and ecological civilization," he said.

"Every city has its own development zones of different types. The zones mainly function as hubs of enterprises, many of which were manufacturers in the past, while from now on they should also function as major residential areas of the cities", said Zou.

"The member cities should enhance their coordination in environmental protection and integration in transportation," Zhou added.

The Yangtze River Delta now enjoys the country's most developed high-speed train network. Cooperation between the cities in transportation will further promote the cities' urbanization in the future.