The Central Plains Economic Zone covers the entire territory of Henan Province; Xingtai and Handan cities in Hebei Province; Changzhi, Jincheng, and Yuncheng cities in Shanxi Province; Suzhou, Huaibei, Fuyang, Bozhou, Bengbu cities and Fengtai County and Panji District of Huainan City in Anhui Province; and Liaocheng and Heze cities and Dongping County of Tai'an City in Shandong Province. The zone covers an area of 289,000 square kilometers, with a total population of 179 million at the end of 2011 and a regional GDP of 4.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 3%, 13.3%, and 9% of the national totals, respectively.

　　The Central Plains Economic Zone is China's largest economic zone by regional area and population covered, and ranks second only to the three major economic zones of the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in terms of total economic output. In 2012, the regional GDP, added value of industrial enterprises above designated size, total fixed asset investment, and local public budget revenue of the Central Plains Economic Zone reached 4.6 trillion yuan, 2.2 trillion yuan, 3.3 trillion yuan, and 314.6 billion yuan, respectively. While growing rapidly, all growth rates exceeded the national average by more than 2 percentage points, and its status as an important national economic growth plate is increasingly prominent.

　　Sun Tingxi, Director of the Henan Provincial Development and Reform Commission and Director of the Office of the Henan Provincial Leading Group for the Construction of the Central Plains Economic Zone, introduced that since the Central Plains Economic Zone was elevated to a national strategy more than a year ago, brother provinces and cities have seized opportunities and increased cooperation. The construction of the Central Plains Economic Zone is in full swing with a positive trend. At the same time, collaborative awareness, transportation connectivity, and regional cooperation are deepening day by day.

　　The "Central Plains Economic Zone Plan" clearly proposes to rely on efficient and convenient transportation corridors mainly consisting of passenger dedicated lines, strengthen the interaction and linkage of node cities along the "米"-shaped development axis, promote the expansion and development of the Central Plains urban agglomeration, and form a highly competitive Greater Central Plains urban agglomeration.

　　According to Sun Tingxi, the consideration for jointly promoting the construction of the Central Plains urban agglomeration is to implement this requirement, conform to the laws of regional economic development, jointly promote the construction and expansion of the Central Plains urban agglomeration, and work together to build a cross-provincial administrative region urban cluster in central and western China. This will make it an important growth pole that echoes the urban cluster in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River from north to south and leads economic development in the central and western regions. It is of great significance for accelerating the development of the central and western regions and better serving the overall national development.

　　The reporter learned that the 30 provincial-level cities in five provinces jointly signed the agreement, proposing to leverage the comparative advantages of each city in the Central Plains Economic Zone, innovate cooperation mechanisms, expand cooperation areas, jointly explore a path of coordinated development of new urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural modernization without sacrificing agriculture and food, ecology and environment, and jointly explore a urban agglomeration construction model featuring integrated transportation, industrial linkage, shared services, and co-built ecology.

　　Shen Qiang, Mayor of Bozhou City, Anhui Province, said that building the Greater Central Plains urban agglomeration requires strengthening transportation infrastructure construction to achieve interconnectivity and seamless connection of transportation networks among members. As the most densely populated area in China, the Central Plains Economic Zone is most suitable for developing rail transit, and it is suggested to start planning the construction of intercity light rail in the Central Plains Economic Zone.

　　Hui Jian, Mayor of Handan City, Hebei Province, said that while actively promoting the construction of intercity rapid transit corridors and accelerating the connection of expressway networks among member cities, it is necessary to jointly carry out the construction of transportation facilities such as railways, highways, and airports to accelerate the formation of an integrated transportation network. He also proposed to arrange industries according to the layout of regional economic integration and create a unified and open large market.

　　Sun Tingxi said that in the process of global urbanization, the replacement of individual cities by urban agglomerations has become a general trend. The relatively low level of urbanization in the central and western regions is largely due to the lack of support from similar urban agglomerations. The Central Plains Economic Zone has a dense population, high urban density, and convenient intercity transportation, giving it inherent advantages for close connections, efficient linkages, and integrated development of urban agglomerations. Accelerating the construction of the Central Plains urban agglomeration and forming a central and western China urban cluster with national influence will play an important role in effectively raising the urbanization level of the Central Plains Economic Zone.

　　The reporter learned that the 30 provincial-level cities signed an agreement to cooperate in nine major areas, including jointly compiling the development plan for the Central Plains urban agglomeration, striving to include the Central Plains urban agglomeration in the nationally key cultivated and developed urban agglomerations; jointly building the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Comprehensive Experimental Zone; jointly promoting the construction of a comprehensive transportation system; promoting industrial division of labor and cooperation, strengthening agricultural cooperation, promoting regional tourism cooperation and development, co-building regional ecology and joint environmental governance, strengthening market openness and cooperation, and deepening cooperation in social fields such as culture, education, science and technology.