To encourage such integration, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is preparing to set up an office to help guide development in the central region, said Fan Hengshan, the director of the NDRC's Department of Regional Economy.

The regional office will be directly under the State Council, which is China's cabinet, and is expected to function like the State Council offices dedicated to promoting the development of the western and northeastern regions, experts said.

The move is in line with the State Council's strategy to encourage the "rise" of the central provinces Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan which are home to at least a quarter of the country's population, Fan said.

The last region to be covered by a national development plan, the central provinces have, in terms of per capita gross domestic product growth, lagged behind not only those on the eastern coast, which opened up in the 1980s, but also their neighbors to the west, which have benefited from a "go-west" scheme since the late 1990s.

The combined foreign trade volume of the country's six central provinces accounted for less than 3 percent of the national total in 2005. They are home to only 671 overseas-financed enterprises, or 5 percent of China's total, according to a development report published recently by the Social Sciences Academic Press.

Grain supply

Looking to harness the region's comparative advantages, the central government is planning to develop its commodity grain supply, energy and raw materials, modern equipment manufacturing and high-tech industries. The government will also build communication hubs there, according to the report.

The report also said that compared with China's west, it will be much cheaper to develop the central region's agriculture, energy and mineral resources.

And compared with the east, labor and land are much cheaper in the central provinces, making them an ideal destination for industries shifting from the eastern coast and from abroad.

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