On November 17, Geographical Brand Protection Union of Huai River Eco-economic Belt was established in Huai'an. Representatives from market supervision departments of Anhui, Henan, Shandong, Hubei and Jiangsu provinces and 23 cities along the eco-economic belt jointly signed the cooperation agreement on geographical brand protection. It announced that cities along the Huai River will make concerted efforts to build the environment with fair competition, transparent business and safe consumption, so as to promote high-quality leapfrog development of the regional economy.

Huai River Eco-economic Belt is a national strategy, the region of which has vast plain and relatively stable ecosystem. It is also an important base for commodity grain, cotton, oil, fruit and vegetable in China. At the same time, equipped with developed water system, especially lakes, it has great potential for aquaculture and animal husbandry. According to the union cooperation plan, cities involved will coordinate the market supervision and management as well as the intellectual property rights protection of the belt, establish the cooperation mechanism of geographical brand protection, and form a working pattern of information interconnection, resource exchange, regional mutual assistance and advantage complement.