(Reporter Gao Wei) Recently, approved by the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission officially issued 13th Five-Year Plan to Promote the Rise of Central Regions (hereinafter referred to Plan). In the Plan, Yichang has been named for seven times to continue its regional central city construction, accelerate industrial restructuring and upgrading, extend the industrial and service chains, and form the growth node to drive regional development.
The Plan has announced more than 160 construction projects. In the first section of the seventh chapter of integrated stereoscopic transportation network construction project column, many programs are on the list like high-speed railway project of Yichang-Zhengwan high speed connecting line, new highway project of Yichang-Zhangjiajie expressway, Yuyangguan to Hubei and Hunan border section, Yichang Three Gorges airport expansion project, renovation project of Wuhan to Yichang section channel, and Yichang port project. In the fourth section of the fourth chapter in the Plan, the key service industry development plan column also points out that we should promote the national e-commerce model city construction in Yichang. The Plan defines central regions as “one center, four areas”, which means the national key center for advanced manufacturing, the national new urbanization key area, the core area of modern agricultural development in China, the national demonstration area of ecological civilization construction and the all-round open and important support area. The main goal in the Plan is to build a moderately prosperous society in central regions by 2020, shift the economy with rapid growth towards a high-end level, maintain the development of modern agriculture at the forefront of the country, and improve the overall quality of ecological environment and increase people’s living standards and quality. The Plan states clearly to support the construction of Wuhan and Zhengzhou to be national center cities, and continue to strengthen the regional central cities like Luoyang, Yichang, Wuhu, Ganzhou and Yueyang and so on.
The central region, which includes six provinces: Henan, Hubei, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi and Hunan, is the “second echelon” of China’s economic development.