Regional Economic integration is not only an irresistible trend of global development, but also an endogenous demand of China’s development. From the global economic developing trend, the world is becoming more and more multi-polarized and the major economies are getting more connected and exerting more influence on each other. The Establishment of a common future community that is mutually open, inerdependent and mutually beneficial has become a major trend of international and regional cooperation. In terms of domestic macro conditions and national strategic requirements, there is an urgent and intrinsic need to accelerate the improving of the regional cooperation mechanism for resources integration, advantageous complementary, responsibilities division, mutual growth and sharing and coordinated response to development challenges, and foster new driving forces of growth and competitive advantages to achieve coordinated, orderly and sustainable development of regional economic transformation and upgrading.
In November 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the First China International Import Expo, announcing that we will support the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and upgrade it to a national strategy. In March 2019, Premier Li Keqiang stated in the Report on the Work of the Government that we will elevate the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta to the position of national strategy and design, and an overall development plan will be implemented. This means that a major historic opportunity has emerged for the Yangtze River Delta to enter a new stage of higher-quality integrated development. In view of this, it is of great practical value to scientifically evaluate the progress of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, identify the main bottlenecks of higher-quality integrated development and thus propose corresponding countermeasures and suggestions. Therefore, in this report, we measured the past integrated development level of the Yangtze River Delta, analyzed the progress, characteristics and existing issues of high-quality integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta, and proposed relevant suggestions to further promote its high-quality integrated development.
