On January 3rd, 2020, the expert argumentation meeting of Research on accelerating the construction of central city of Huaihai Economic Zone in the 14th five-year plan was held. The expert argumentation meeting was hosted by Xuzhou Development and Reform Commission. Experts and leaders from Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou Federation of Social Sciences, Xuzhou Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, Xuzhou Statistics Bureau and other departments attended the argumentation meeting.

Prof. Ma Xiaodong, vice dean of Belt & Road Institute is responsible for this project. Based on the evaluation of the seven core functions of the central city, the project team systematically constructs the evaluation index system of the primacy of the central city, comprehensively reviews the achievements in the construction of the central city since the 13th five-year plan, analyzes the gap between the primacy index and Zhengzhou city, deeply analyzes the main problems in the construction of the central city, and puts forward the ideas, goals and main tasks of constructing a central city and promoting the primacy of Xuzhou city during the 14th five-year plan period. The review experts agreed that the project has implemented the national major decision-making and deployment on establishing a more effective regional coordinated development mechanism, with clear guiding ideology and research ideas, and the proposed policies and suggestions are targeted and feasible.

This project is one of the bidding projects in the early stage of the 14th five-year plan issued by Xuzhou Development and Reform Commission, which was obtained by our institute through competitive bidding. The project team has successively carried out several stages of work, such as data collection, field research, data analysis, thinking discussion, etc., and completed the research report in three months.