(Yicai Global) Aug. 24 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed efforts to seek continuous results in the integration of the Yangtze River Delta through focusing on major work of integrated and high-quality development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a symposium held in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province on August 20.

Agencies must devise more precise measures for less developed regions to help them keep up with the pace of high-quality integrated development of the Delta, he added.

The Outline of the Integrated Development Plan for the Yangtze River Delta, a policy document published on Dec. 1, includes a 358,000 square-kilometer area within its purview that comprises all administrative areas of Shanghai, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, among which significant disparities exist.

Of the 14 non-central area cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, only Xuzhou, Huai'an and Quzhou reported above-national average gross domestic product, while the other 11 are all below the average, these 14 cities' main economic data for last year show. Of the 11 under-performers, Fuyang, Haozhou, Lu'an and Suzhou in Anhui province each registered a GDP per capita of less than 50 percent of the national average and are thus economically under-developed areas.

Such a gap suggests huge development space. As many as 1,905 ongoing projects each worth over CNY100 million (USD14.4 million) funded by Shanghai and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces were in Anhui over the year's first five months, with funds in place up 8.1 percent on the year at CNY240.2 billion (USD34.6 billion), according to data from Anhui’s office for cooperative affairs. This figure made up 50.8 percent of the province's total, 2.4 percentage points higher than in the same period last year.

North Jiangsu, southwest Zhejiang, North Anhui and West Anhui must receive support that targets development of modern agriculture, cultural tourism, health, pharmaceuticals, agricultural product processing and supporting industries, per the development blueprint. Industrial transfer clusters should be built in north Jiangsu and traditional light industry and manufacturing of construction machinery, food and textiles and clothing from the central areas of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang should be upgraded and transferred to these areas.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Ben Armour