China regional economic gap narrows

China may be the world's second-largest economy and an engine of global growth, but there remains a wide developmental gap between different parts of the country. In southern China's bustling metropolis of Guangzhou, a conference on regional economic development has just come to a close. takes a look at how policymakers plan to close the development gap.

In recent years, China's National Development and Reform Commission has launched more than 80 regional economic projects. They come with specific characteristics that adapt to the local situation and related policies to guarantee their implementation. This has resulted in diminishing the inequality in economic development.

Du Ying, vice-minister of National Development and Reform Commission, said, "The change in the country's economic structure shows that the gap of the economic development between the regions is diminished. Now the developing pace of the Midwest region and the northeast region, which were considered less economically developed, has exceeded the pace of other developed regions."

Although these regions are developing very fast, the gap still exists. According to the NDRC, the next step will be to optimize the industrial structure, and especially, as the commission pointed out, enhancing the public services.

Fan Hengshan, director of Department of Regional Economy of NDRC, said, "Our goal is to develop the economy of every region, and bridge the gap between them. This requires us to narrow the gap, especially between social services. We will put more efforts to develop social facilities in all the regions."

According to the commission, those less developed regions will be on the top of the list in the future, as they do play an important role in the country's economic development. Big cities and economic regions will also start to play their role in narrowing the gap and keep the economy developing at a sustainable pace.