Officials from Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei Province in northeastern China said they all welcome and fully support the central government's masterplan to promote the concerted development of a metropolitan region combining the three places, sources from the State Development and Reform Commission said Friday.

"A unified plan for the development of the three places as a whole is what we have long expected," said a senior official from Beijing.

He said that regional cooperation will help Beijing solve resource shortages and environment pressures, and will rationalize industrial distribution to maintain the sustainable development of the region.

Officials from Tianjin and Hebei also said that the new plan provides a great opportunity for the region's coordinated development and that it is in the common interest of the three places. The local governments concerned would adjust their strategic planning to coordinate with the regional masterplan launched by the central government.

The region around Beijing is among China's most developed areas in terms of economy, science and technology and culture. However, it also faces problems such as repetitive construction, huge environmental pressure and the lack of unified planning for regional infrastructure for economic and social development.

Those problems can only be tackled with unified planning under the guidance of scientific development principles, said an official with the State Development and Reform Commission.
 
(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2004)