Modernization model

Xin Changxing, Party secretary of Jiangsu province, said thanks to the smooth flow of people and goods, collaborative manufacturing has become common in the region.

"The cooperation of enterprises along the industrial chain helps control costs and enhances efficiency," said Xin.

Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek, a leading AI company, said, "In the past four years, we have seen how enterprises along industrial chains have collaborated and promoted technological products in the region at a greater speed."

The Yangtze River Delta Entrepreneurs Union, founded four years ago, has facilitated the growth of technological innovations and helped match these innovations with market demand, Liu said. It has become a great contributor to the region's industrial upgrade, innovation and development, he added.

With a commitment to promoting industrial chain cooperation across the region, the union has promoted the establishment, consolidation and strengthening of 19 industrial chain alliances. It has boosted scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation in the region, and built a Yangtze River Delta industrial chain community with global competitiveness and influence, said a report on the region's development of such alliances.

"The essence of the Yangtze River Delta region's integration is collaboration in systems. This is the most difficult and important part in the integrated development of the region. In fact, all the achievements we have made are the results of system collaboration," said Zhang Zhaoan, a counselor at the Shanghai Municipal People's Government.

According to Zhang, who is also former vice-president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, with the resolution of the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization, the outlook for the Yangtze River Delta region's integrated development looks promising.

"The success of the region's city cluster development will become important support for China's economic growth, in the meantime, the experience of innovations in reform and opening-up will also serve as a role model for other Chinese city clusters to follow," Zhang said.

Scholars said regardless of the great achievements made in the region's integrated development, there are still many challenges ahead.

"We have reached many collaborative agreements, but few are obligatory. Binding agreements with a focus on integrated development will better facilitate the region's integration," said Zuo from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Liu Zhibiao, head of the Yangtze Industrial Economic Institute with Nanjing University, said the experience of world-class city clusters demonstrated the importance of technological innovation.

"Based on first-rate industrial innovative capacity, cities across the region will form complementary industries in accordance with the market-oriented economy," he said.

"Strong technological innovation abilities will help establish world-class multinational corporations and brands with global competitiveness and attract the world's best talents. This is my vision of the future Yangtze River Delta region," he said.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn