Economic belt to drive development westward

Premier Li Keqiang promised on Monday to help group 11 provincial-level entities into the largest development network in China - an economic belt along the 1,800-kilometer "golden waterway" of the Yangtze River.

It is simply a logical step to use the Yangtze to connect relatively developed east China with central and west China, Li said.

From the coastal financial center of Shanghai to the central China business center of Wuhan and to the nation's largest municipality of Chongqing in western China, the proposed Yangtze economic belt would cover one-fifth of China's territory and have a population of around 580 million.