OREANDA-NEWS. The Hefei Economic Rim (HER) announced on Wednesday it expanded its domain to Chuzhou, a city bordering Hefei, capital of Anhui province, on the west and Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, on the east.

Not only did the move increase the area of the rim by almost 30 percent and its population by more than 2 million, it also made the region overlap with the Nanjing Metropolitan Area (NMA), which had absorbed the city a couple of years before.

"We tended to 'develop eastwards', but we are now switching to a balance-between-east-and-west strategy, aiming to build bridges between the two urban agglomerations and to spur coordinated regional development of the province," said Zhang Xiang'an, mayor of the city, at Wednesday's conference.

"As Chuzhou is complementary to member cities of the Hefei Economic Rim, they can strengthen cooperation in household appliance manufacturing, automobile manufacturing and modern agriculture which the city does well in," an official with the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission said.

By joining in developing Nanjing-backed industrial parks and economic zones in Chuzhou, the rim will enter into effective partnership with the NMA and get fully integrated into the richer Yangtze River Delta, according to local media reports.

On top of Chuzhou's entry, plans for the rim were unveiled as well at the meeting. Zhang Qingjun, mayor of Hefei, said an intercity railway will be built from the provincial capital to Shucheng county and Tongcheng city. Also a bus route between the Hefei Xinqiao International Airport and Shouxian county will be launched.

Meanwhile, residents of Hefei, Lu'an, Huainan, Chuzhou and Tongcheng will be able to visit scenic attractions across the region at half price, Zhang said.