The Wuxi City Statistical Bureau has published its latest report on 2010 economic operation in the Yangtze River Delta area. The results make for impressive reading, to say the least.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Yangtze River Delta area last year reached 6.9872 trillion yuan (US$1.058 trillion), corresponding to 17.6% of the national total and a year on year growth of 12.6%, 1.6 percentage points over the previous year. The report also shows total exports from the Yangtze River Delta area reached US$592.6 billion in 2010, up 32.8% year on year, while foreign investment for the year amounted to US$45.5 billion dollars, up 8.4%.
The Yangtze River Delta spans the Shanghai to Nanjing corridor and adjacent areas, including the cities Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong, Huzhou, Jiaxing and Shaoxing; with an area approximately equal to that of France. With a population a little under 100 million, it is the second largest concentration of adjacent metropolitan areas in the world after the Pearl River Delta that comprises Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and others. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature the Yangtze River Delta is also the biggest cause of marine pollution in the Pacific Ocean.
