Eight cities from the three provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have became new numbers of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Coordination.

The decision was announced at the end of the group's annual forum, which ended at the weekend in Hefei, Anhui province.

This year, Zhejiang's Wenzhou, Lishui, Jiangsu's Lianyungang, Xuzhou, Suqian and Anhui's Wuhu, Chuzhou, Huainan were added to the list of assembly cities, bringing the total number to 30, said Jiefang Daily.

In addition to the participation of all cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces as well as Shanghai, five cities from Anhui province have joined the assembly in the past three years.

Traditionally, the Yangtze River Delta only covers Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

The region's economic coordination meeting this year discussed how to further promote collaboration between member cities and provinces.

Challenges facing environmental protection including controls over air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution were discussed for the first time.

With Shanghai as its driver backed up by Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces the Coordination was established in 1996 with the aim of strengthening the coordination of logistics, medical insurance, finance, transportation and livelihood between the provinces and cities.