The Yangtze River Delta, with Shanghai at the center, is expected to contribute at least 20 percent to China's gross domestic product (GDP) this year.

In the first three quarters alone, the area reported 1.97 trillion yuan (about 240 billion US dollars) of GDP, making up 21.2 percent of the country's total, said a source with State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) at an ongoing meeting on the coordinated economic development in the Yangtze River Delta in Shanghai.

This is close to the region's total GDP generated in 2003, saidWang Yiming, vice president of the commission's macro-economy institute.

Wang acknowledged the Yangtze delta posted 2 trillion yuan (some 241 billion US dollars) of GDP last year, or 19.5 percent of the country's total.

The Yangtze River Delta, which refers to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai municipality, is playing an increasingly vital role in China's overall economic growth, particularly in theglobalization and industrialization processes, Wang said.

He went on to say that the region has replaced the Pearl River Delta in the southern Guangdong Province as the largest recipient of foreign capital.

In 2002, the Pearl River Delta used 11.3 billion US dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI), a five-percent decline over the previous year, he said, quoting Ministry of Commerce statistics.

In comparison, the Yangtze River Delta utilized 17.5 billion USdollars of FDI, up 30.7 percent year-on-year.

"And the trend is still going on," said Wang.

Ministry of Commerce statistics show the Yangtze River Delta covers only one percent of China's total land and six percent of its population, but accounts for 35 percent of the country's totalexport and 48 percent of the overseas investment.

The Yangtze River Delta is one of China's three leading city clusters, the other two being the Pearl River Delta in the south and the area along the Bohai Bay rim in the north.