The 1st Three Gorges City Cooperation and Development Forum, co-sponsored by China Three Gorges University (CTGU) and the Hubei Provincial Academy of Science and Technology, was held in Yichang on 24th. The development strategies for the Three Gorges city group were discussed by 55 leading talents and specialists from the related fields from the perspective of the whole situation of China. He Weijun, the President of CTGU, gave an opening speech and the Vice Municipal Secretary as well as Mayor Ma Xuming of Yichang City presented this forum.
　　The participants have reached common understanding about the regional cooperation development, the group cities development in Three Gorges area and the leading role that Yichang city is supposed to play. It is agreed that since the Yangtze River Delta, the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River and the Chendu-Chongqing Urban Agglomerations had been built in the Yangtze River economic zone, a subordinate city group is needed to be built as a transitional zone among the three city groups. Nowadays Wanjiang city group has already been laid out by the state between the Yangtze River Delta and the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, which necessaries the construction of a subordinate city group. Yichang city, which links the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, has already become a leading economic power in the area, and should be able facilitate the development the construction of the Three Gorges city group. The Three Gorges City Group strategy is very practical and is hoped to be recognized as a national strategy.
　　Since 2013, the Municipal Government has been working on the Three Gorges City Group strategy. Provincial Secretary Li Hongzhong said that the Yichang, as a leading platform in the city group, must be fully developed. The attendees of the forum were from the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Communication, Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Research Center of Economic, Technological and Social Development of the State Council, the Three Gorges Group as well as Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Beijing Jiao Tong University, and many important media such as Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, CCTV and China News Agency, and all of them gave active responses to this event. Before that, the cooperation of nine cities’ news agencies of Hubei, Hunan and Chongqing provinces had already been established. (Reporter: Liu Zirong)