A meeting on the advancement of characteristic towns takes place in E-Fashion Town in Yuhang district, Hangzhou on Sept 13. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

East China's Zhejiang province held a meeting to promote the construction of characteristic towns in Yuhang district, Hangzhou on Sept 13.

A characteristic town is neither an administratively defined town nor an industrial zone. Instead, established under the principles of innovation, coordination, and common and individual development, it is considered an area with specific industry orientations, cultural elements, tourism features and community functions.

The concept of characteristic towns was incubated in Zhejiang and the province has taken a lot of effective measures to support the development mode with the aim of cultivating new growth drivers and boosting economic upgrading efforts.

Che Jun, Party secretary of the province, said constructing characteristic towns is an important step to push forward the quality development of Zhejiang. In past years, a batch of landmark towns have emerged thanks to the efforts made by all cities in the province, he remarked.

Che extended the requirement of prioritizing the construction of characteristic towns further and called on all parties to insist on innovative, integrated and high-standard development.

Yuan Jiajun, governor of Zhejiang, stressed the importance of industrial competitiveness in these towns at the meeting. He said characteristic towns are expected to be high-level platforms with new and advanced development ideas. The industries are the basis of the towns while the development of technologies, tourism and culture helps consolidate and prosper them.