The State Council announced in a document released on April 25 to set up the Xiangjiang new area in Hunan province as the country’s state-level strategic development zone, boosting regional economic and social development along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Located on the west bank of Xiangjiang River, the 490-square-kilometer new area include the provincial capital Changsha’s Yuelu district, Wangcheng district and part of Ningxiang county, according to the State Council’s official reply to the government of Hunan province’s application for setting up the new area.

The establishment of the new area is part of the government’s strategy for regional development and an important move to seek better development along the “golden waterway” on the Yangtze River, it said.

The decision will help boost the economic and social development in Hunan province, as well as the whole region along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, thus contributing to the construction of the Yangtze River economic belt, it said.

As new industrialization and new-type urbanization are the major tasks of the new area, efforts are required to promote coordinated development of urban and rural areas.

The development goals of the new area include building it into a base of high-end R & D and manufacturing, an agglomeration of innovative industries as well as a model of inland opening-up of the Yangtze River economic belt.

The government of Hunan province will guide the construction of the Xiangjiang new area, and the State Council will offer necessary policy support.