After that the Yangtze River economic zone has been written into the government work report of two sessions, recently the State Council issued Guidance on Promoting the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Zone Relying on the Golden Waterway to develop the golden waterway of the Yangtze River further and promote the development of the Yangtze River economic zone, which marked that the Yangtze River economic zone rose to national strategy officially.
The Guidance pointed out that the Yangtze River is the first golden waterway among global inland rivers with the largest freight volume. The Yangtze River is the most important east-west axis of our national spatial development. It plays a vital strategic role in the general pattern of the regional development. After correctly appraising the situation, the Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly made the great strategic decision, which is beneficial for both the present and the future, to promoting the Yangtze River economic zone relying on the golden waterway and creating the new supporting zone for Chinese economy when scheming the new phase for Chinese economy.
The Guidance mentioned the strategic positioning of the Yangtze River economic zone is: the inland river economic zone with a global influence, the coordinating development zone of the inter-cooperation among the East, the Central and the West, the opening zone towards internal and external promoted fully by places neighboring sea, river and border, the pioneering demonstration zone of ecological civilization construction. In addition, the plan of comprehensive dimension transportation corridors of the Yangtze River economic zone is also issued along the Guidance. The target is to establish a comprehensive dimension transportation corridor of the Yangtze River economic zone, which is connected with all directions, river and sea as well as convenient and efficient.
The Yangtze River economic zone covers 11 provinces and cities, for example: Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and so on. Its area is about 2050 thousand square kilometers with a population and GDP accounting for over 40 percent of the whole country.
Jingzhou has been looking forward to the national strategic plan of the Yangtze River economic zone for many years, and for Jingzhou the plan is the greatest, the most direct and the most realistic opportunity at present. This would be the historical moment for Jingzhou to turn the past flood “sufferings” into the development “advantages”. This chance would propel propel the channel construction of Yangtze River in Jingzhou and the basic facility construction of railway, harbor, airport and pathway crossing rivers along the river. In the same time, the Guidance mentions the construction of flood storage and detention areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and water ecological construction of Dongting Lake area, which is relevant to Jingzhou directly. Concerning the industrial development, the Guidance put forward several proposals, such as: “developing modern farming, creating predominance region of main agricultural products”, “building transportation for coal, setting large high-efficient and clean coal-fired power stations properly”, all of which are conducive to the industrial upgrading and attracting investment of Jingzhou.