Xi stresses advancing integrated, high-quality development of Yangtze River Delta

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, chairs a symposium on advancing integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Aug. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed efforts to seek continuous results in the integration of the Yangtze River Delta through focusing on major work of integrated and high-quality development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a symposium held in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province on Thursday.

The integration mechanism and interconnected infrastructure have played a role in epidemic prevention and control as well as economic recovery, Xi said in a speech delivered at the symposium.

In general, a new development pattern for the integration of the Yangtze River Delta is taking shape, Xi said.

He called for a deeper understanding of the delta's status and function in China's economic and social development, so as to better promote the region's integrated development amid grave and complex circumstances.

Xi urged the delta region to take the lead in forming a new development pattern that takes the domestic market as the mainstay and allows the domestic and foreign markets to boost each other.

Noting that the region should also rise to assume the role of the trail-blazer of China's technological and industrial innovations, Xi said Shanghai and the entire delta region should not only provide quality products but also serve as a source of high-level technologies to support China's high-quality development.

Xi underscored achieving faster progress in developing the region into a new high ground of reform and opening up.

Efforts should be made to improve the business environment in line with world-class standards, and attract talent and enterprises from home and abroad with a development environment scoring high in openness, services, innovation and efficiency, Xi said.

He also called for efforts to promote trade and investment facilitation and strive to make the delta region an important bridge between the international and domestic markets.