The State Council recently officially approved the "Shanxi-Shaanxi-Henan Yellow River Golden Triangle Regional Cooperation Plan," bringing new development opportunities to the three provinces and four cities of the Yellow River Golden Triangle.
　　Lu Shisheng, director of the Office of the Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Coordinated Regional Development in the Yellow River Golden Triangle, said that all four cities are far from their respective provincial capitals, but the Golden Triangle region is rich in resources and has a solid foundation in coal and coal chemicals, nonferrous metal mining, agricultural production and processing, equipment manufacturing, logistics, and tourism.
　　Located near 30 degrees north latitude, the Yellow River Golden Triangle region is the best apple-producing belt. Its apple planting area and output account for 20% and 30% of the country's total, respectively, and its average annual juice production capacity reaches 900,000 tons, making it the country's largest apple juice concentrate processing base. At present, a distinctive industrial chain economy of apple bases—concentrated juice—juice beverages—jams and fruit vinegar—pectin—comprehensive utilization of pomace has taken shape in the region.
　　The four cities are located at provincial borders, and their logistics industry is highly developed. The Fanglue Bonded Logistics Center is located in Houma City under the jurisdiction of Linfen City and is the only bonded logistics center in the Yellow River Golden Triangle region. The logistics center has set up logistics nodes in 16 major logistics cities across four ports—Tianjin, Qingdao, Rizhao, and Lianyungang—two land border ports—Erenhot and Alashankou—and five regions—Southwest China, Northwest China, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the West Coast Economic Zone. The Tongguan Logistics Port in Tongguan County, Weinan City, has a unique location and convenient transportation. At present, infrastructure construction of the logistics port has been fully launched; once completed, its annual cargo transaction volume will reach 20 million tons and its transaction value will reach 50 billion yuan.
　　As one of the important birthplaces of Chinese civilization, the Yellow River Golden Triangle region alone has 87 national-level cultural heritage protection units. Mount Hua, Hukou Waterfall, the Guandi Temple in Xiezhou, Guanque Tower, Yongle Palace, the Great Locust Tree in Hongtong, Hangu Pass…… These unique tourism resources have formed the main image of root-seeking and ancestral culture tourism in the Golden Triangle region. The number of visitors and revenue at these scenic spots have increased year by year, and they have also driven the development of industries such as paper-cutting, painting, and homespun cloth in the region.
　　Lu Shisheng told reporters that the four cities belong to different administrative divisions and implement noticeably different policies. In economic cooperation, this directly causes industries that are the same in each city to compete under unequal market conditions, and also leads to duplicate construction, restricting the allocation of regional resources, the orderly flow of production factors, and the rational distribution of industries.
　　The Plan particularly emphasizes the need to innovate regional interest coordination mechanisms. It supports the three provinces and four cities in jointly raising special funds to establish a regional cooperation and development fund and to coordinate and resolve interregional interest relationships in cooperation.
　　After the State Council approved the Plan, Henan held a joint meeting of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, and Shaanxi and Shanxi held executive meetings of the provincial governments to conduct special discussions on the implementation plan of the Plan.
　　Yang Shuping, secretary of the Sanmenxia Municipal Party Committee, believes that the Golden Triangle region should break down the “glass door,” strengthen various cooperation mechanisms, establish systems such as joint meetings and a rotating chairmanship, and have the four cities share advantages in resources and policies rather than compete from their own respective perspectives.
　　Yue Puyu, mayor of Linfen City, said that through the demonstration role of the 100-li Fenhe ecological belt construction, Linfen will drive Yuncheng and Weinan in jointly protecting and governing the ecology of the Fenhe and Weihe rivers, establish a regional ecological cooperation framework, and make joint efforts to improve the water quality of the Yellow River.
　　Xi Zhengping, mayor of Weinan City, said that the four cities in the Golden Triangle region originally had strong competitiveness among them. With the approval of the Plan, the four cities should improve the regional environment, develop the ecology, strengthen mutual integration and connectivity, form internal interest-sharing and interest-cooperation mechanisms, and build regional competitiveness.
　　Lu Shisheng introduced that the four cities in the Golden Triangle region have already carried out some cooperation. On May 17 this year, the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Henan Yellow River Golden Triangle Fruit Industry Development Association and the Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to jointly build a "Modern Fruit Comprehensive Experimental Demonstration Base," hoping to strengthen fruit industry and rural fruit grower talent training and cultivate a group of modern fruit growers who understand technology, love science, and are good at management. At the same time, it will breed and promote new fruit varieties suitable for the Yellow River Golden Triangle region, laying the foundation for the upgrading and replacement of fruit varieties. At the end of 2012, the Sanmenxia Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau established a national key laboratory for fruit and fruit and vegetable juice testing. Shen Lei, deputy director of the bureau, introduced that the laboratory is an important testing technology service platform in the Golden Triangle region.