Closer co-operation on economic integration and the full utilization of their resources will ensure a win-win situation for all cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Chinese top legislators and advisers said Wednesday.

"Cities within the delta now operate individually, without consideration for the whole region," said Chen Shouyi, a member of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top advisory body.

"This can only create an overlap of basic facilities in the region," he said.

Referring to port construction and the vehicle manufacturing industry, Chen said that severe competition among the cities in attracting investment and formulating preferential policies can only waste each city's precious resources, both natural and human.

The Yangtze River Delta covers Shanghai Municipality, and East China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and includes 15 major cities.

Today, the delta accounts for 23.5 per cent of China's industrial production and 18 per cent of the mainland's gross domestic product, even though it has only 6.2 per cent of China's population, working on 1 per cent of the country's total land, according to official statistics.

Economic integration began in the 1990s. However, problems such as regional protectionism and vicious competition among these cities have been a bottleneck on integration, said Liu Feng, a CPPCC member from Zhejiang Province.

Chen noted that, while the automobile giants Volkswagen and General Motors have set up operations in Shanghai, there are still over 100 enterprises manufacturing automobile parts in other parts of the delta, which has resulted in a waste of resources.

He called on the central government to set up a unified department to co-ordinate the delta's overall economic development.

Such a government department is required to help remove barriers, help cultivate a free market in the delta and beef up co-ordination through local development planning and the adjustment of the industrial structure, according to Chen.

However, Yang Weize - a deputy to the National People's Congress and also mayor of Suzhou - said that the market, rather than the government, should play a leading role in promoting the region's economic integration.

Officials in local cities should map out their development strategy according to the market situation to reduce overlaps in the industrial layout and improve the efficiency of the whole region, said Yang.

Zhou Muzhi, associate professor of Tokyo Keizai University, advocated the development of "megalopolitan regions" in China after conducting a two-year investigation into the country's urbanization.

The Chinese academic suggested the development of high-speed railways to link all the cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, with Shanghai as the core metropolis, to increase the transportation of goods and passengers and to promote economic efficiency.

China should also focus on developing the Pearl River Delta region, with Guangzhou at its core, and the Bohai Sea region around Beijing, he said.

Economic integration is conducive to reducing any waste of land and natural resources and increasing local competitiveness in the global market, according to Zhou.

(China Daily)