The plan was unveiled last week in a news article from the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily that was posted to the official government website and pitched as China’s first “interprovincial, metropolitan-area land and space plan”.

And if it comes to fruition, the ambitious undertaking could theoretically slash commute times between Shanghai and all of the 13 regional cities to as little as 30 minutes and as much as 90 minutes. Currently, a high-speed train from Shanghai to Anhui’s Xuancheng, the farthest city from Shanghai in the grouping, takes about 3.5 hours. Other key plans include interconnected infrastructure and industrial development coordination.

Apart from traditionally affluent and innovative centres such as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wuxi, which are among China’s top-15 cities in terms of gross domestic product, the list also includes lower-tier cities such as Jiangsu’ Nantong, Zhejiang’s Zhoushan, and Xuancheng.

The spatial planning framework being sketched out will cover an area of about 114,000 square kilometres (44,000 square miles) with a combined population of 110 million and more than 18 trillion yuan (US$2.48 trillion) worth of annual economic output.

Officials from the 14 cities have been meeting monthly this year to thrash out details and align their respective local planning and policies to iron out differences, according to the Jiefang Daily.

Shanghai and the 13 cities in the YRD are on the state-planned vanguard of regional and economic integration, after the decades-old plan to fuse YRD cities and conurbations into one unified economic zone was elevated by Beijing in 2018 as a national strategy.

Beijing has lofty aspirations for Shanghai, China’s largest city economy, to be the “leading goose” in the nation’s largest and most affluent urban cluster to grow output, upgrade industries and up the ante in competing with other world cities such as Tokyo, New York and London. The combined GDP of the 14 cities in the Shanghai metropolitan area is equivalent to that of France and represents roughly 15 per cent of China’s total.

The grandiose plan for Shanghai may also take a page out of Beijing’s ambitions for the Greater Bay Area development zone, which was established in 2019 to pool Hong Kong, Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong province together to form an integrated economic and business hub.

These types of regional integration plans for eastern and southern urban centres have garnered more attention as Beijing increasingly relies on their member cities to drive economic growth.

A master plan, drafted and agreed upon by all cities in the region, could solve these problems and form synergy

But many hurdles, including planning and policy fragmentation, must be overcome in the coming years to fully realise the Greater Shanghai Metropolitan Area.

“Different cities in the YRD may have different plans and priorities. For instance, while one city is planning an ecological park, another city could be looking to build a heavy-polluting factory nearby,” said Zhu Yuyu, a director with Shanghai Tongji University’s Urban Planning and Design Institute.

Zhu said cities in different provinces may also adopt various design and construction standards. “Due to incompatible standards and a lack of coordination, it’s not rare in the YRD to find that many roads and bridges are not connected if you travel from one jurisdiction to another,” he explained. “A master plan, drafted and agreed upon by all cities in the region, could solve these problems and form synergy.”

But the drafting process thus far has not been entirely smooth. Shanghai media revealed there had been “heated debate” among cadres from different cities in meetings to decide principles of cooperation, such as the sharing of benefits, the relocation of factories, and how to split the costs of projects that straddle provincial borders.

“It’s essential for governments in Shanghai and nearby cities to work together to enhance coordination and connect roads and infrastructure, but such a master plan should not weaken the role of the market,” said the economist from Fudan University. “Shanghai and the rest of YRD comprise the most open and economically dynamic region in China, so officials must strike a delicate balance when they roll out any government plan that is bound to impact the market and businesses.

“Officials should just connect roads and bridges; optimise transport and the business environment; and leave other matters to the market.”

Currently, Shanghai has only one subway line that extends beyond the city limits. Shanghai Metro’s Line 11 now connects to Kunshan, in the neighbouring city of Suzhou, Jiangsu. New lines are being planned to extend into more cities. Interprovincial bus services have also been launched to serve towns and industrial parks on urban fringes or near the frontier between different cities.