Region legislators cooperate for a common future

Legislators from the Yangtze River Delta region are increasingly being brought together by a common legislation agenda aiming at greater regional integration. That was the message from a symposium in Shanghai on Thursday for officials of legislatures in the region's 26 major cities.

The symposium was held to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of standing committees in local people’s congresses.

Ding Wei, director of the committee on legislation work of the standing committee of Shanghai People’s Congress, said at the symposium that concerted lawmaking of the region could be traced back to 2007, and the first tangible results came in 2014 when Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui established air pollution prevention and management regulations in the same year with stipulations on regional air pollution control.

The effort has gathered speed since last year when Ding’s committee and its counterparts in the three provinces signed an agreement to push it forward, with a key focus on legislation in overall planning, environment protection, industrial development and the business environment.

“This year, we have determined on concerted legislation on the sharing of large scientific instruments in the region, and we’ll be also prepared to make laws on quality improvement and railway safety administration together,” Ding said.

Elsewhere in the region, sub-regional cooperation of city legislatures is well underway, as is demonstrated by the efforts of legislators in Taizhou in Jiangsu Province.

Wang Jian, deputy director of the standing committee of Taizhou's people’s congress, said it proposed at the annual session of the provincial people’s congress earlier this year to build cross-Yangtze links between Taizhou and Changzhou and the proposal is being realized.

“Taizhou and Changzhou are supplementary in each other’s strengths, and together we serve as the linkage between the Shanghai and Nanjing economic circles,” he said, stressing that traffic infrastructure is indispensable to push for faster regional development.

“As we pursue regional integration, we have to mend the fragmentation of legislation and avoid making the protectionist economic development policies,” he said.

Fan Conglai, professor and director of the Yangtze River Delta region economic and social development research center of Nanjing University, said: “It’s undeniable that competition between local governments has contributed to faster reforms, improved business environment and the overall high economic growth of the region, but market barriers and division are contrary to the notion of high-quality development of the region. The legislators should better work together to ward off the negative effects of mutual competition.”