The trend of regional integration will strengthen the flow of talent among city clusters, believes Yu Xuefeng, an official with the Jiangxi Provincial Commission of Development and Reform.

Deals on train wheels

With enterprises in the three provinces tending to focus on similar industrial areas such as petrochemicals, steel and automobile manufacturing, regional competition has traditionally been intense.

However, since the drive for city clusters and better infrastructure, enterprises across provincial borders are increasingly seeking cooperation, Li Zhigang said.

The booming Xunyang district in Jiujiang city signed a deal in July 2014 with the comparatively backward Huangmei county in Hubei to build an industrial park in the county. Xunyang lacks land while Huangmei is seeking economic development, so the deal would seem to be mutually beneficial.

Jiangxi-based WGTech Co, Ltd, a manufacturer of the glass used in flat panel displays, invested more than 1 billion yuan to build a plant in Wuhan's Optical Valley, a high-tech development zone, that opened in 2014.

Zou Yuli, a researcher with the Bureau of Commerce in Jiujiang, said there are 38 projects in Jiujiang invested in by Hubei-based enterprises, with the total investment running to 7.15 billion yuan ($1.15 billion). Another 17 projects feature investment from Hunan-based enterprises worth 6.07 billion yuan.

Some believe there is room for improvement in this regional development. The governments of these cities need to establish a coordination mechanism to promote better cooperation in industrial development and more efficient allocation of resources in the area, said Zhong Yu, an official with the Nanchang Municipal Urban and Rural Planning Bureau.