On April 11, the Xinhua News Agency's Outlook Weekly published a set of five in-depth special reports focusing on the development of city clusters along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the exploration of a new path for urban integration of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan metropolitan area. The reports attracted much attention from people from all walks of life.

For more than a month, Outlook Weekly reporters visited enterprises and industrial parks in Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces, interviewed experts and relevant departments and learned about citizens' expectations.

The reports said that the GDP growth rate of Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces in recent years has often surpassed that of eastern China. The three provinces have a strong development momentum and have become an important region to support China's economic growth. The integrated development of city clusters along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River has initially entered a phase of fast growth. It is imminent to speed up establishing and improving the integrated mechanism system. The metropolitan areas with the three provincial capital cities as their cores are developing independently. The cities in the metropolitan areas have relatively strong connectivity. But the connectivity among the city clusters needs to be improved. The most urgent task is to develop and improve the regional coordinated development mechanism, build a multi-type and multi-level regional cooperation platform, and establish a strategic alliance to achieve complementary advantages and win-win cooperation in the region.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn