Liaoning cities pledge coordination for future development

Six coastal cities in Northeast China's Liaoning province complement each other to advance high-quality coordinated regional development.

Government leaders from the cities, namely Dalian, Dandong, Jinzhou, Yingkou, Panjin and Huludao, signed cooperation agreements at a meeting held on Feb 25 in Dalian.

"To accelerate the high-quality development of Liaoning's coastal economic belt is a key measure to promote a new round of overall revitalization for Northeast China," said Hu Yuting, deputy secretary of the CPC Liaoning provincial committee and Party chief of Dalian.

Liaoning's coastal economic belt is made of six cities with a coastline stretching 2,920 kilometers.

According to the meeting, coastal cities will carry out 27 major tasks this year, such as setting up a strategic alliance of technology and innovation for marine industry, deepening cooperation with Japan and the Republic of Korea and promoting the establishment of industrial investment funds.

The cities also signed strategic cooperation framework agreements with Liaoning Port Group and Dalian Commodity Exchange.

Hu said since 2009, when the overall development plan of the area was launched, the six cities have made positive progress in many fields, including industrial transformation, institutional innovation, opening-up and cooperation, and infrastructure development.

However, compared with advanced regions, there are still many shortcomings and gaps, he said.

"We should accelerate the efforts to overcome our shortcomings and give full play to our advantages of being a latecomer, thus promoting the coastal area's development to a new level and become an important driving force for high-quality development of Liaoning and the whole northeastern region," Hu said.