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The integrated growth of booming economy in east China's Yangtze River Delta with the leading financial and commercial center of Shanghai Municipality as its axis and flanked by two economic powerhouses of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces has become an urgent issue to deal with, a noted CPPCC member said Wednesday.
Chen Shouyi from Zhejiang, who is currently attending the First Session of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, appealed to the central government to set up a super government department to coordinate the economic growth of the Yangtze River Delta areas.
"Such a government department is required to help remove barriers and speed up economic growth of different places in the delta and beef up coordination with local development planning, construction and use of infrastructure facilities, environmental protection and market access," said Chen Shouyi, who is from thriving Ningbo City of Zhejiang Province.
The Yangtze River Delta embraces 15 major cities in the region of Shanghai Municipality, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. With only one percent of China's land area and six percent of its population, the delta boasts 18 percent of its total GDP, making it China's largest economic bloc and the sixth largest city group in the world.
Economic integration in the delta area has been encouraged time and again by Chinese state and government leaders and a mechanism of communication has been worked out by heads of Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Yet the invisible power of ingrained regional protectionism remains very strong, posing a barrier to the process of integration.
He acknowledged there is not any overall planning of port construction in the delta area and but acute competition for investments from overseas. "Such laxity incurs the overuse and excess waste of precious resources, both natural and human, and this is therefore detrimental to interests of all the three parties in this area," said Chen, who is director of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy.
The proposed agency could give scope to a number of coordinating roles, he noted, including the adjustment of industrial structure, the smooth flow of production materials and commodities as well as construction of infrastructure facilities in the delta area.
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2003)
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