Time to bridge North-South gap within China

Editor's note: China is a vast country with a huge population and remarkable regional differences. The regional development gap within China has been narrowing over the past decade thanks to the country's efforts to coordinate regional development, writes a veteran journalist with China Daily.

In a vast country like China, regional disparities are part of the overall economic development process. Making it its priority to provide the Chinese people with all the necessary elements to lead a better life, the central government, for decades, has been making strenuous efforts to develop the "less-developed" western region through financial support and preferential policies.

The efforts seem to be paying off with many local economies in western China growing at a faster pace than the developed eastern region over the past few years. But while the development gap between the eastern and western regions is likely to narrow, the widening disparity between the southern and northern regions should also draw the authorities' attention.