(Photo by Yan Yunxia)
The Yangtze Industrial Economics Institution of Nanjing University released a report about the progress to promote high-quality, integrated growth in the Yangtze River Delta region on April 2 and introduced an assessment system with 50 indicators, such as spatial, market, industry, innovation, transportation, information, trade, public services and ecological environment.
The report said that the development gap in the delta region has kept shrinking and economic ties have gotten closer. However, due to the ongoing urbanization expansion, the region still has obvious imbalanced development internally.
The region’s consumer goods and capital-market tended to be more integrated but uncertainty remains in the field of labor market, primarily due to the separation and labor cost fluctuations.
The overall transportation network has also been improved in the region. However, the density of railway links varies a lot so more efforts are needed to increase the inter-provincial access.
The report also showed narrowing disparities in education and health care across the region, less gap within cultural infrastructure, and growing differences in social security.
According to the report, to promote integrated development in the region, it is necessary to coordinate policies and address the difficulties due to administrative divisions.
The report also showed companies in the region didn’t contribute much to funds for research and development by institutions and schools, which also means a large space for the trilateral industry-university-research cooperation and innovation.
Shanghai and Jiangsu are important for innovation in the Yangtze River Delta region and even the whole country. The number of contracts and turnover for technology transfer, both inbound and outbound, were higher than those in Zhejiang and Anhui. Zhejiang has made a rapid growth in technology transfer and excelled in innovation and cooperation.
