Integration with Shanghai ≠ Yangtze River Delta Integrated City | Function | Yangtze River Delta
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out the deepening implementation of regional coordinated development strategy, regional major strategy, main functional area strategy, and new urbanization strategy, clarifying the four major regional strategies. The higher quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta is one of the major regional strategies, and it also deeply participates in the regional coordinated development strategy, the main functional area strategy, and the new urbanization strategy. However, based on the five years of practice in various regions, there may still be several issues that have not been clarified, and these issues are of key significance for promoting higher quality integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta in the next five years. Firstly, the integration of the Yangtze River Delta is not entirely limited to aligning with the integration of Shanghai. In the process of integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai undoubtedly plays a leading role and has become a key target for integration in various regions of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. However, in practice, some regions equate the integration of Shanghai with the integration of the Yangtze River Delta. In the top-level design and work promotion, only how to connect with Shanghai is considered, and less consideration is given to the integration of other regions. In fact, according to the "Development Plan for the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration", the Yangtze River Delta has a total of Shanghai metropolitan area and five metropolitan areas: Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hefei, Suzhou Xichang, and Ningbo. The "Jiangsu Province Land and Space Plan" also plans for the Xuzhou metropolitan area, and Zhejiang also specifies the Wenzhou and Jinyi metropolitan areas. Compared to urban agglomerations, the connections within urban agglomerations are closer and more conducive to promoting integrated development. At the same time, in addition to Shanghai, there are seven cities in the Yangtze River Delta with a GDP of trillions of yuan, which also have strong radiation and driving force. For the Yangtze River Delta, in promoting the process of integrated development, more attention should be paid to and research on Shanghai. However, docking with Shanghai cannot be the only direction, and integration with the core cities of the metropolitan area, within the metropolitan area, and between trillion yuan cities should also be comprehensively considered. Secondly, the integration of the Yangtze River Delta is not entirely limited to the integration of resource acquisition. The Outline of the Development Plan for Regional Integration in the Yangtze River Delta proposes to "promote the relocation of non core functions from central cities to surrounding cities, and create functional relocation carriers where conditions permit... to create Shanghai's supporting functional expansion areas and non core functional relocation carriers." However, in practice, some regions equate the reception of central city resources with the reception of functional relocation, and have not effectively formed functional synergy with central cities or cultivated core functions in specific fields. In fact, among the specific matters identified at the 2023 Yangtze River Delta Regional Leaders Symposium, the top three are to work together to build a world-class science center and jointly build a highland for scientific and technological innovation; Jointly building clusters of emerging industries, maintaining the resilience and stability of industrial and supply chains; Joining hands to enhance the global high-end resource allocation capability and build a major open platform is actually to jointly create technological innovation strategies, high-end industry leadership, global resource allocation, and open hub portal functions. The Shanghai Metropolitan Area Spatial Collaborative Plan also clarifies the shift from building a single global city in Shanghai to working together to create a global urban area. For the Y