What's the intention of Henan and Anhui "joining hands"?

According to a report from the Anhui Provincial People's Government website, recently, the General Office of the Anhui Provincial People's Government and the General Office of the Henan Provincial People's Government jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Cooperative Development of the Inter - provincial Adjacent Areas between Anhui and Henan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan").

According to the "Implementation Plan", the adjacent areas between Anhui and Henan include the entire areas of Bozhou, Fuyang, Lu'an, and Huaibei in Anhui Province, as well as Dangshan County and Xiao County in Suzhou City, and the entire areas of Shangqiu, Xinyang, Zhoukou, and Zhumadian in Henan Province, covering an area of 96,000 square kilometers.

The "Implementation Plan" proposes that within five years, the infrastructure in the inter - provincial adjacent areas should achieve convenient and efficient connectivity, industrial clusters should be basically formed, regional opening - up and cooperation should reach a new level, cooperation projects in key areas should be successfully implemented, a number of replicable and promotable innovative experiences in regional cooperation should be explored and formed, and these areas should be built into a new model for the cooperative development of inter - provincial adjacent areas in the central region.

Building a unified national market is the core hub for unblocking the domestic economic cycle and the key to unleashing the potential of the ultra - large - scale market. Due to their unique geographical location advantages, inter - provincial adjacent areas are playing an increasingly important role in building a unified national market and promoting regional coordinated development.

Specifically in the central region, as early as 2021, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting High - quality Development in the Central Region in the New Era" proposed to "promote inter - provincial cooperation and coordinated development in border areas" and "promote cooperation in the border areas between the six central provinces and the border areas between the central region and other provinces in the east and west."

The Symposium on Promoting the Rise of the Central Region in the New Era held last year further pointed out that the central region should strengthen the connection with other major development strategies and deepen the docking with the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area.

Against this background, Henan and Anhui have long started to explore the coordinated development of inter - provincial adjacent areas.

At the end of 2021, Yeji District of Lu'an City in Anhui Province and Gushi County of Xinyang City in Henan Province signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to jointly create a "Cooperative Area for Common Prosperity on Both Sides of a River at the Anhui - Henan Border." In September last year, the National Development and Reform Commission officially replied, in principle agreeing to establish an ecological - priority and green - development industrial cooperation zone on both sides of a river in Yeji - Gushi, marking that this cooperation zone has become the first inter - provincial county - level cooperation zone in the central region.

Wu Yunnian, the deputy director of the Development and Reform Commission of Yeji District in Lu'an City, previously said in an interview with the media that "the cooperation between Yeji and Gushi is an exploration of the development path for inter - provincial adjacent areas in the central region, and also an attempt to find mechanisms, methods, and paths to transform the 'periphery of the center' into the 'center of the periphery'."

The release of the "Implementation Plan" means that the scope of cooperative development in the inter - provincial adjacent areas of the two provinces will be further expanded.

The "Implementation Plan" puts forward a number of specific measures from five aspects: strengthening industrial innovation linkage, enhancing infrastructure connectivity, promoting coordinated urban - rural integrated development, jointly promoting ecological environmental protection, and innovating regional cooperation mechanisms.

For example, in building characteristic industrial clusters, it is necessary to deepen the coordinated development of the new - energy vehicle and parts industry and jointly build a new - energy vehicle industrial cluster. In optimizing inter - provincial railway corridors, the "Implementation Plan" specifically mentions that high - speed rail projects such as the Nanyang - Xinyang - Hefei line and the Fuyang - Huanggang section of the Beijing - Hong Kong line will be launched.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Urban Evolution Theory", author: Liu Yanmei. It is published by 36Kr with permission.