Hubei province to further develop Wuhan metropolitan area

Central China's Hubei province will further boost the development of the metropolitan area of its capital city, Wuhan.

This was announced by Hubei Governor Wang Zhonglin, at the first meeting on the development coordination mechanism of the Wuhan metropolitan area which took place in the capital on Sept 20. The meeting saw the signing of 10 joint project agreements by the cities of Wuhan, Ezhou, Huanggang and Huangshi.

The Wuhan metropolitan area is composed of Wuhan and eight surrounding cities. They make efforts in transportation integration, public services, industrial collaboration and technological innovation, to promote high-quality regional socioeconomic development.

Wang emphasized that the Wuhan metropolitan area should continuously improve its scale and level, build a key support for urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and create an engine leading the development of Hubei.

It should also focus on building itself into an international comprehensive transportation and logistics hub, national manufacturing center, national science and technology innovation center, professional financial center and international exchange center.

He said that after years of development, the comprehensive strength of the Wuhan metropolitan area has greatly improved, but the future development tasks are still challenging.

Wang said the area should go all out to build a comprehensive transportation and logistics network, as well as build a hub for air passenger and freight services. It should accelerate the construction of urban rail transit, intercity railways and urban and suburban railways, and improve the multimodal transport collection and distribution system.

Coordinated industrial development should be promoted in the area, to realize the complementary advantages of local industries, win-win cooperation and resource sharing.

Moreover, the area should strengthen its advantages in scientific and technological innovation. This would be done by accelerating the sharing of innovation resources, coordinated research into key technologies and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Joint efforts in comprehensive river basin management, ecological protection and restoration and green and low-carbon development are necessary in the area.

In addition, the area should further its opening-up, the joint development of public services, and realize coordinated and efficient urban governance.