As a regional hub in the West Taiwan-Straits Economic Zone, Xiamen's business implications extend to the entire Zone. This economic zone borders the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta to its north and south respectively and stretches from the shores of the Taiwan Straits in the east to the hills in the interior Jiangxi Province in the west. Twenty cities in Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces are located within this economic zone which hosts a population of around 80 million and an economic size of 1,700 billion yuan ($270 billion). After the high-speed rail network is finished, people can travel to any of these cities from Xiamen in three hours.

Xiamen is the economic center of the Golden Triangle area in southern Fujian Province. It is now being increasingly integrated with nearby Zhangzhou and Quanzhou cities. The total retail sales of consumer goods in these three cities reached 357.22 billion yuan, accounting for 43.8 percent of the total of Fujian Province.