The fourth national urban agglomeration in the western region has expanded.

Recently, the Report on the Implementation of the 2025 National Economic and Social Development Plan and the Draft 2026 National Economic and Social Development Plan for Kunming City, released by the Kunming Development and Reform Commission, revealed that "the Development Plan for the Kunming Metropolitan Area has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in a written reply." The 2026 Kunming Government Work Report also made it clear that "the Kunming Metropolitan Area has become a national-level metropolitan area."

Sorting out public information, 19 national-level metropolitan areas have previously been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, namely the Nanjing, Fuzhou, Chengdu, Changzhutan, Xi'an, Chongqing, Wuhan, Shenyang, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Jinan, Xiazhangquan, Hefei, Shijiazhuang, Changchun, and Ningbo metropolitan areas.

In February this year, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council approved the Spatial Coordination Plan for the Modern Capital Metropolitan Area (2023 - 2035), which became the first metropolitan area plan approved by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council in the country. With the newly announced approval of the Kunming Metropolitan Area, the number of national-level metropolitan areas in the country has increased to 21.

Metropolitan areas are important carriers of regional economic development and play a crucial role in promoting the process of regional coordinated development. Since the Nanjing Metropolitan Area was approved in 2021, national-level metropolitan areas have continued to expand. With the promotion of the Kunming Metropolitan Area, the number of national-level metropolitan areas in the western region has increased to 4.

Public information shows that Yunnan started promoting the planning and construction of the Kunming Metropolitan Area relatively early.

In January 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the Development Plan for the Central Yunnan Urban Agglomeration. It clearly proposed to enhance the radiation and driving ability of Kunming and actively plan and cultivate the Kunming Metropolitan Area.

The 14th Five-Year Regional Coordinated Development Plan for Yunnan Province also made it clear that "guided by Kunming as a regional international central city and centered on the metropolitan area, promote the integrated development of the Central Yunnan Urban Agglomeration and further increase the population and economic density."

Not long ago, the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government issued the Implementation Opinions on Promoting High - quality Urban Development, further proposing to strengthen the Central Yunnan Urban Agglomeration with the Kunming Metropolitan Area as the leader, highlighting Kunming's positioning as a regional central city facing South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Currently, the Development Plan for the Kunming Metropolitan Area has not been released. According to the Outline of the 15th Five - Year Plan of Kunming City, in the next five years, the functional layout of the Kunming Metropolitan Area will be optimized, forming three circles from the inside out: the core circle, the linkage circle, and the coordination circle. The core circle will lead the development of the circles, and relying on key transportation corridors and important industrial corridors, four development axis - belts of Kunyu, Kunqu, Kunchu, and Kunhong will be built.

Looking across the country, there is still room for further expansion of national - level metropolitan areas.

In July 2025, the Central Urban Work Conference proposed that, aiming to improve the comprehensive carrying capacity of cities for population and economic and social development, develop modern urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas in a cluster - type and network - based manner. The Outline of the 15th Five - Year Plan also emphasized cultivating and developing modern metropolitan areas. It also specifically mentioned that "cultivate several metropolitan areas in the central, western, and northeastern regions to enhance the radiation and driving capacity of central cities."

As of now, 12 provinces have not yet been approved for national - level metropolitan areas, including Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shanghai, Jiangxi, Hainan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang.

Previously, some analyses pointed out that although the existing national - level metropolitan areas have basically covered the major domestic economic belts, there are still some potential regions in the central, western, and northeastern regions that have not been included. The expansion process will continue in the future, and more attention will be paid to development quality and effectiveness.

Currently, the development of metropolitan areas in China still faces some prominent problems: First, there is an imbalance between urban functions and population distribution, with excessive concentration in super - large and large cities and insufficient carrying capacity in small and medium - sized cities and county - level cities; Second, the cross - regional cooperation mechanism is lacking, and systems such as benefit sharing, cost sharing, and unified management of planning and land have not been established. These issues need to be resolved during the 15th Five - Year Plan period.

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