Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

All industrial sectors of regional economy is interrelated and interacted with each other, and the difference lies only in the way of interrelation and the intensity of interaction. Manufacturing industry is one of the most important sectors to meet the material needs of human beings and various economic entities, and is also the main driving force and important pillar of the regional economic development. The development of manufacturing industry is inseparable from the support of service industry. Producer service industry in the service industry and then the logistics industry in producer service industry are the most direct basic supporting industrial sectors of manufacturing industry. From the international point of view, logistics industry is regarded as the artery and basic industry for national economic development, and its level of development has become one of the important symbols to measure the modernization degree and comprehensive national strength of one state. It is known as the “accelerator” and “the third source of profit” to promote economic growth. Therein, the development of logistics industry is most closely related to the manufacturing industry.

The “new normal” of economic development needs to find more development impetus from “endogenous” factors, and one of the so-called “endogenous” development logic is cooperation. It is the fundamental demand and objective of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt to form mutual dynamic development interaction with the help of certain resource dependence. It was agreed by most experts that it is the right time to vigorously promote the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt under the background of the “new normal”. In terms of regional cooperation, all provinces and cities shall carry out scientific industry positioning and establish economic cooperation mechanism with common interests as the link; in terms of development path, the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt shall be jointly promoted from the aspects of urban-rural integration, innovation driven, modern logistics, and river basin development; in terms of exploration and innovation, provinces and cities shall formulate targeted development policies according to the actual situation to realize the regional overall promotion in the exploration of differentiation path; in the aspect of development drive, the national level shall give active policy support to provide reliable institutional guarantee for the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. In this process, agriculture is the top priority. The natural environment and agricultural development level with large internal differences are not only one of the short boards of agricultural coordinated development, but also an important space for future development. The development of agriculture in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is confronting both challenges and opportunities.

The problems of ecological environment mainly include air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution. The ecological environment problems are mainly caused by the unreasonable development and utilization of natural resources by human society. The core of eco-environmental problems is how to keep the balance between socio-economic development and the development and utilization of resources and environment, so as to realize the sustainable development of social economy. This is a major problem that we have been dealt with in China’s social and economic development at the national and regional levels in the past 30 years of reform and opening up, and will continue to face in the coming decades. In other words, how to realize the coordinated development of ecological environment and social economy, and realize the sustainable development of social economy, is an important strategic issue that is inescapable by the society. The historical experience of developed countries shows that to realize the sustainable development of social economy, the sustainable development of ecological environment must be taken as the premise. Adhering to the coordinated development of social economy and ecological environment is a long-term national strategic policy that China must adhere to with the objective of sustainable development.

In 2013, the “two belts and one road” strategy was proposed in China with the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road as the core. During the 13th Five Year Plan and even in a long subsequent development stage as well as in the process of implementing the national strategy of “two belts and one road” and the regional integration in depth development, the financial cooperation and financial integration of the Yangtze River Economic Belt will continue to be strengthened.

Relying on the “golden waterway” to build the Yangtze River Economic Belt was raised to national strategy by the top-level decision-making and deployment. At present, with the official launch of the national strategy for the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the “golden waterway” of the Yangtze River has been entrusted with the new mission of connecting the east and the west, connecting the river and the sea, and it is ushering its real golden period. The Yangtze River’s freight volume has ranked the first in the world’s inland rivers, but there are still contradiction between the large-scale ships and the insufficient navigable capacity of the waterway and problem of the tense port working surface; the contradiction between the low level of water logistics service and the growing high-quality logistics service; the contradiction between the increasing freight volume of the upstream and downstream and the insufficient passing capacity of the Three Gorges shiplock. In the new development period, the critical points are how to solve the current constraints on the function of the “golden waterway”, to solve the problems existing in the Yangtze River, such as the poor channel conditions in some sections of the Yangtze River, the insufficient carrying capacity of the Three Gorges dam area, large scale ships, the low degree of standardization, the insufficient role of port comprehensive hub, the stable and uncertain security situation, and the weak ability of industry transformation and upgrading as well as insufficient capability for sustainable development. It has become an important topic to promote the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt by improving the function of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River and promoting the radiation effect of the port on the regional economy.

In the process of industrial development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, industrial competition is the normal, but not all of regional economic development. The win-win result can be achieved only by cooperating in competition and competing in cooperation. Through the cooperation and division of work, the member regions of the Yangtze River Economic Belt will build their own advantageous industries and products into specialized production, and realize the complementary advantages through the unified market. The production cost will be reduced to result in significant economic benefits. In recent years, the research on the Yangtze River Economic Belt has attracted extensive attention of the academic community, and the research literatures have emerged increasingly. Zhao Lin et al. (2013), Xu Changle (2014), Li Xuesong et al. (2015) and Zou Lin (2015) respectively studied the development of Yangtze River Economic Belt from different perspectives. On the basis of relevant research, it is supposed to make a statistical description and analysis of the industrial division of work in the Yangtze River Economic Belt over a long time span.