Joint office to help guide Yangtze River Delta area

Administrative center will assist urban integration, development

A joint administrative office for the Yangtze River Delta region will be established and a three-year plan regarding the integrated development of the region involving 26 cities will be formulated, a top Shanghai official said on Wednesday.

It signified that the integrated development of the region - Shanghai and most cities in neighboring Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces accounting for nearly 20 percent of China's GDP and 10 percent of its population - will make substantial progress, and Shanghai will play a strategic role as a world-class core city, local political advisers said after listening to Li Qiang, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, at their annual gathering on Wednesday.