RESEARCH ON THE URUMQI METROPOLITAN AREA INTEGRATION AND THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT TRENDS
DONG Wen1,2, ZHANG Xiao-lei1
1. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China;
2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy Sciences Beijing 100049, China
Abstract Urumqi is the political, economic and cultural center of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region(XUAR), also is the most essential city in western China. But limited by the landform and with the rapid development in recent years, land resource shortage is probably one of the most severe problems confronting Urumqi today. In addition, XUAR government long for developing Urumqi into "economic center in western China" and "international city of Central Asia" with a high level of prosperity, efficiency and civilization. Based on above reasons, seven cities including Urumqi, Changji, Miquan, Fukang, Wujiaqu, Shihezi, Turfan established a Coordination Committee for building a metropolitan urban area. This strategic has been gradually accepted by local government and construction department. The demand and strategic design of building a predominantly urban region were officially put forward in urban system layout of XUAR (2003-2020) in which offered the powerful policy foundation for the operation and planning of a metropolitan urban area. Nowadays, Urumqi metropolitan area is the most advanced area in XUAR with highest level in economy, technology and urbanization. Under the circumstances, Urumqi metropolitan area firstly should solve the integration of itself in new economic development situation, because integration is most effective way to promote intercity exchange and cooperation and the overall competitive of metropolitan area can be enhanced quickly by this method, it's very important for economic development in Xinjiang and western China. Based on the necessity of integration and the main issue that Urumqi metropolitan area confronted, the paper point out it should deal with those problems through three main methods. Firstly, ideas integrate. It means the government and manger should change the traditional manage idea at all levels and then establish the cooperate idea in order to promote the whole regional development with high speed. Secondly, integrate industry. Through conjunctive effort by all city which involving in Urumqi metropolitan area to form a reasonable allocation of industry, complementary factors of production and rational division in each city. Thirdly, through administration adjustment to settlement the lack of urban land resource. At last, the paper point out the future development trends of Urumqi metropolitan area. With the development of cooperation between all cities, Urumqi and Changji will first realize the integration in agriculture, industry and commerce; infrastructure will be improved step by step and economic region development will take the place of administration economic.
2006, Vol. 21 
