On May 26, Yichang, Jingzhou, Jingmen and Enshi forged a partnership in Taohualing, Yichang. The government representatives of the three cities and one prefecture signed a framework cooperation agreement on the integrated development of Yichang, Jingzhou, Jingmen and Enshi.
Coordinated development of key industries
"The city cluster of Yichang, Jingzhou, Jingmen and Enshi, rich in resources such as phosphorus, coal, selenium and water & electricity, has a solid industrial foundation for high-quality development," said Wang Li, Secretary of the CPC Yichang Municipal Committee. In terms of industrial development, the cluster has met the conditions for developing into a fine phosphorus chemical center in China.
With 15 professional chemical parks and 237 chemical enterprises above the designated size, the city cluster has formed an integral circular industry chain focused on fine phosphorus chemical and supported by coal, fluorine, silicon, calcium, salt and petrochemical, and 11 chemical enterprises in the cluster are ranked among China's top 500 petrochemical enterprises.
In late 2020, Yichang, Jingzhou and Jingmen jointly applied for the status of "national phosphorus mechanical industry cluster" which has received a subsidy of 10 million yuan from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Yichang, Jingzhou, Jingmen and Enshi are connected by mountains and waters. Enshi should fully leverage the advantage of mountains and waters in the city cluster, and rely on attractions like Enshi Grand Canyon and Tenglong Cave in Lichuan, to form a tourism alliance with the other cities in the cluster, said Hu Chaowen, Secretary of the CPC Committee of Enshi Tujia & Miao Autonomous Prefecture.
Mountain and water resources integrate the resource advantages of Yangtze River culture, red culture, Three Kingdoms culture, Tujia & Miao culture and Ming culture, to develop the city cluster into a world-renowned tourist destination, said several attendees.
As industries in the city cluster are troubled by problems such as weak foundation, insufficient collaboration and serious homogeneous competition, we must give priority to industrial collaboration, and advance the integrated development of key industries such as fine chemical, ecological and featured agriculture, biomedicine and equipment manufacturing, so as to accelerate the establishment of a modern industrial system, attendees said.
According to data released by the Department of Commerce of Hubei Province, the city cluster brought in 409 projects with an investment of over 100 million yuan each and a total investment of 193.2 billion yuan in the first quarter, accounting for nearly 30 percent of Hubei's total; commenced projects accounted for over 40 percent of Hubei's total.
Creating a "one-hour traffic circle"
Interconnected infrastructure in the city cluster is hard support for development.
We should leverage the comprehensive advantage of the Jingzhou port cluster and connect it to Yichang Port to accelerate the development of a port cluster with a handling capacity of 100 million tons; should accelerate the reconstruction and expansion of Phase II of Jingzhou Airport, and strengthen integration with Sanxia Airport, Enshi Airport and Jingmen General Aviation, to jointly create an influential airport cluster in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, said Zhou Zhihong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Jingzhou Municipal Committee and Mayor of the Jingzhou Municipal People's Government.
"We should lose no time in planning and implementing major infrastructural projects connecting the traffic network, the water network, the energy network and the information network in the city cluster," said Zhao Jun, Executive Vice Mayor of the Jingmen Municipal People's Government. Jingmen will fully advance the construction of Riverside High-speed Railway, Hohhot-Nanning High-speed Railway and Jingmen-Jingzhou High-speed Railway, accelerate the construction of Wuhan-Tianmen-Yichang Highway, Jingmen-Shayang-Jianli Highway and other highways, improve the navigation capacity of the Jingmen port cluster in the Han River, develop a high-quality national general aviation industry demonstration zone and advance the "Jingmen-Yichang-Badong" product oil pipeline project.
According to a head of Hubei Provincial Communications Investment Group, the enterprise has invested a total of over 160 billion yuan in the city cluster, the most among its invested regions. The total investment of transportation projects in progress exceeds 90 billion yuan. Under the cooperation agreement, the city cluster will advance a series of trans-regional major transportation projects to accelerate the creation of a "one-circle traffic circle".
Keeping the river clear
Yichang, Jingzhou, Jingmen and Enshi along the Yangtze River teamed up early to keep the Yangtze River clear. As part of the mountain, water, forest, farmland, lake and grass ecology protection and restoration project that Yichang applied to the country for implementation in association with Badong, Enshi and Songzi, Jingzhou, 63 projects have started with a total investment of 10.32 billion yuan.
Under the cooperation agreement, the city cluster will implement the ten actions for the high-level protection of the Yangtze River, and coordinate mountain, water, forest, farmland, lake and grass demonstration projects with the "decade-long fishing ban" for the Yangtze River, to create a pilot zone for the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt; will establish a mechanism for the joint prevention and control of air pollution and continue to improve the air quality of the city cluster; will establish a mechanism for the joint prevention and control of the ecological environment of the basin, to advance the full coverage of the horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in the basin; and will establish a mechanism for the coordinated early warning of regional geological disasters, to improve the capabilities of geological disaster control and emergency response. (Zhang Zhenzhen/Zhang Hong)