Yangtze River Economic Belt Has More PotentialCompared with the coastal region of China, the most economically developed area in the nation, the land along the Yangtze River, the longest river in China, has more potential for development in the upcoming century, an economist said recently in Nanjing.Wang Yiming, with the China Development Planning Commission, proposed that the Yangtze River belt could become the most promising economic belt for sustained economic development in the 21st century. The heavily populated river belt includes provinces rich in natural resources in the upper reaches and very developed regions like Shanghai at its lower reaches. The river belt has witnessed fast development in the infrastructure industry, machine and electronic industry and high-tech industry over the past decade, whose GDP took up 24.2 percent of the country's total, Wang said. Besides, major renovations and constructions have equipped the region with advanced transportation and communications facilities, where nearly 30 development zones of various kinds have mushroomed. Wang argued that facing economic globalization, the economic belt is forced to accelerate its industrial restructuring and give priority to technology-led industries. The Yangtze River belt, which traditionally has advantages in human resources, technology and capital, will become an important impetus behind China's overall development, he concluded. |
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