Premier Li Keqiang examines the pole of a bangbang, a traditional porter who helps residents carry bags, at Wanzhou port in Chongqing on Sunday. [Photo / China News Service]

Premier Li Keqiang promised on Monday to help group 11 provincial-level entities into the largest development network in China - an economic belt along the 1,800-kilometer"golden waterway"of the Yangtze River.

It is simply a logical step to use the Yangtze to connect relatively developed east China with central and west China, Li said.

From the coastal financial center of Shanghai to the central China business center of Wuhan and to the nation's largest municipality of Chongqing in western China, the proposed Yangtze economic belt would cover one-fifth of China's territory and have a population of around 580 million.

Li discussed the plan with leaders from the 11 municipalities and provinces in Chongqing on Monday, and he believes it will generate a powerful driving force for the nation's next round of economic development.

The 11 provincial level entities in the proposed economic belt include Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities, along with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

Another recently proposed cross-region integration plan covers Beijing , Tianjin and Hebei province in northern China.

The Yangtze River Delta is a key pole in China's economic growth and the central and western regions boast the largest space for China's economic growth, according to the premier.

He made the remarks while chairing a meeting in Chongqing in southwest China. Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli also attended the meeting.

To build the Yangtze River economic belt is to set up a new chess game so that the coastal regions can support mutually and interact positively with the central and the western regions, he said.

Through reforms and opening-up, as well as some key projects, three "blocks" in the Yangtze River economic belt are expected to be invigorated, including the delta, city clusters along the central course and the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone, according to Li. It can provide huge new development stimuli for more than a fifth of the country's land and about 600 million people

Though the Yangtze River's transport volume ranks the first among the global inland rivers, it still has remarkable potential, Li said, urging more efforts to improve the river's transport capacity.

He also expected construction of the economic belt would help deepen reforms and opening-up, break administrative division barriers and build a modern market system along the regions of the river.

He highlighted ecological safety and warned against "pollution transfer" brought about by "industry transfer."

Hou Yongzhi, head of the Department of Development Strategy and Regional Economy under the Development Research Center of the State Council, said China's economy must maintain a certain speed to improve people's livelihoods and the Yangtze River economic belt could be a new economic growth pole.

The economy faces downward pressures and the decision on the Yangtze project shows that China pays much attention to the development and opening-up of the landlocked regions, while it is improving the development quality of the coastal east, Hou said.

The regions along the Yangtze are expected to accommodate industries transferred from the coastal east, deepen opening-up and boosting urbanization, Hou said.

The largest difference between the Yangtze River economic belt and other economic zones is that it joins the east, central and west in a natural way and thus can help accelerate the ongoing industry transfer and economic transformation and upgrading, said Wang Jun, an analyst with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Yang Kaizhong, a regional economy professor at Peking University, said the country will be put in a disadvantageous situation if it relies solely on the booming coastal areas for economic growth.

"The well-being of people along the Yangtze River - who number about 580 million in 2012 - is vital to the country's overall development,"he said.

Yang noted that development in that area should no longer be based on low labor cost and real estate development. Instead, it should establish a"shared market"in which all the factors of production are being exchanged freely and inter-regional connection is efficient.

He suggested setting up an all-powerful coordination bureau, which overlooks affairs that involve more than one local admini stration.

Provinces miss growth albeit lowered ambitions

Almost all Chinese provinces failed to meet their growth targets in the first quarter even after scaling back their ambitions as the government instructs officials to focus on reining in debt and curbing pollution.

Thirty of 31 provinces and municipalities reported missing their goals, with the biggest shortfall in northeastern Heilongjiang, where an expansion of 4.1 percent compared with an 8.5 percent target for the year. Most localities' targets are lower than in 2013. The latest data were released by government websites and newspapers.

Premier Li Keqiang stresses quality-oriented economic growth as the government cracks down on overcapacity in the steel industry, wrestles with shadow banking risks and rolls out economic restructuring measures. While the government has supported expansion with measures such as reserve-ratio cuts for rural banks, it has so far avoided broader stimulus as Li chases a national growth target of about 7.5 percent.

"The central government will continue to refrain from all-out stimulus and the slowdown pressure may continue to rise," said Zhu Haibin, the chief China economist with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Hong Kong.