Association of development zones along Yangtze founded

The Collaborative Development Association of National-level Development Zones along the Yangtze River Economic Belt was founded in Beijing on Jan 10, 2017.

The association follows the guidance of the Foreign Investment Administration of the Ministry of Commerce and was co-founded by the Investment Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Commerce, 11 provincial and municipal commercial departments along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and selected national-level economic and technological development zones, with the voluntary participation of other national development zones along the economic belt, national border development and cooperation zones, provincial development zones, and relevant firms.

The association has an operation steering committee, a council, an expert committee, and a secretariat.

Guided by China’s "innovative, coordinated, green, open and sharing" development concepts, the association’s goals are to promote exchanges and collaboration among national development zones involved in the economic belt, accelerate the industrial upgrading of the zones, stimulate cooperation between the zones and other areas, and support the integration of capital and firms from home and abroad into the development process of the belt.

The association focuses on establishing six platforms for collaborative development among the zones.

The first is information sharing platform for coordinated development. By harnessing various tactics including internet technologies and seminar discussions, and the latest policy analysis, industrial trends and cooperation intentions will be shared among association members.

The experience exchange platform facilitates development zones to learn advanced ideas and effective practices from outstanding overseas industrial parks. The successful experiences of pilot reforms of the free trade zones will also be advertised via the platform.

By building think tanks, the policy analysis platform works towards innovating institutions and models, as well as researching financial, land, and talent policies for the development zones on the upper and middle reaches to undertake industrial transfer. It also provides advice to government officials on the development of relevant policies.

The mutual investment promotion and cooperation platform actively provides involved development zones more collaboration opportunities at home and abroad, and organizes filed visits, as well as promotes exchanges between domestic and overseas firms. In addition, domestic firms will be encouraged to “go global” by participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones.

The industrial transfer cross-regional cooperation platform stresses the industrial upgrading of development zones in the lower reaches. Meanwhile, the resource-processing and labor-intensive industries with cost advantages, as well as the capital and technology-intensive industries demanded by the market will be shifted to the middle and upper reaches.

The investment and financial services platform adheres to market-oriented principles. It encourages financial and investment institutions and association members to utilize innovative financial cooperation models, such as industrial funds for infrastructure construction, transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and the development of strategic emerging industries in the development zones.

The association also adheres to the principle of openness and inclusiveness, so as to absorb more development zones and related social forces along the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

It is striving to develop a competitive and influential regional cooperation platform by promoting the orderly transfer and rational distribution of industries in the national development zones along the belt.

In the 11 provinces and municipalities along the economic belt, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces, there are a total of 108 national development zones.