The central government has finally decided to start official planning on the development of the nation's economically-dynamic Yangtze River Delta region, according to local government sources.

The National Development and Reform Commission will work out within its 11th Five Year Plan (2005-10) an overall and long-term plan on the regional integrative development for the delta area, which covers Shanghai and parts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, according to Jiangsu Deputy Governor Jiang Dingzhi at a provincial-level work conference yesterday.

Jiang, together with Shanghai Vice-Mayor Zhou Yupeng and Zhejiang Deputy Governor Zhang Mengjin, are having a two-day discussion in Shanghai on regional co-operation and the meeting is being attended by dozens of officials from the three areas.

"The State-level planning has been put on the agenda, and we need to co-operate with the central authority in this regard,'' said Jiang.

The nation's top planning authority will help co-ordinate local authorities to upgrade the current partnerships in the delta area to a new level of regional integration that covers industry, urban construction, market unification and environmental protection, according to Jiang.

According to sources at the conference, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have reached a consensus that the current regional co-operation will focus on transportation, environmental protection, information, tourism and natural gas pipeline networking.

Jiang revealed that Jiangsu Province is considering building urban rail links between Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou in the southern part of the province, which will eventually extend to connect with Shanghai's urban railway.

Meanwhile, a high-speed railway between Zhejiang's capital city of Hangzhou and Shanghai is being examined under feasibility studies, local officials said.

"We have yet to decide whether to use the technology of maglev or orbit (technology for the new trains), but it's for certain that the rail will be completed by 2009 and put into use before the opening of Shanghai World Expo 2010,'' Zhang told yesterday's meeting.

By 2010, Zhejiang will have three railways and four highways to reach Shanghai, according to Zhang.

Zhou, on behalf of the Shanghai municipal government, also noted a long-term goal is to build the delta region into the country's first and largest united market, which will have a free-flowing circulation of commodities, capital and human resources.

The Yangtze River Delta region, located in East China's coastal area with Shanghai as a centre, covers Shanghai and 14 neighouring cities in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu.

The region accounts for 2 per cent of China's total land space and 10 per cent of its total population approximately, but contributed 22 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2002.

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