China's State Council has given the go-ahead for a large urban cluster of major cities in the Northeast's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, including the cities of Harbin and Changchun, as of Feb 29.
According to the plan, it aims to "change development models", "improve urban governance" and "explore a new type of urbanization".
The Northeast, especially Heilongjiang and Jilin, saw the slowest economic growth among all provinces in 2015, and in recent years has suffered a lot from economic changes so, according to Fang Chuanglin, of the Chinese Science Academy’s Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, "The Harbin-Changchun megalopolis is the central government's resolution for the economic downturn and an ever increasing population in the area."
And, Fang adds that the central government will come up with policies that favor regional development and integration.
Liu Shuming, researcher of the Jilin Development Research Center, points out that the region already has a highway-railway system connecting cites in the two provinces and the convenient transportation between Jilin and Heilongjiang can contribute a lot to the megalopolis.
Other analysts say the two provincial governments should work together to put the plan into practice with industrial development and urban planning. Harbin and Changchun already have had State Council approval for construction work in new areas that are expected to be pillars for the proposed megalopolis. (ejilin.gov.cn)
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