Economic Daily-Editor of China Economic Net:Since the beginning of this year, in the face of the complicated international situation and the downward pressure on the domestic economy, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, all localities and departments have conscientiously implemented the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, worked hard to overcome difficulties, and made efforts to do a good job in the "six stabilities". The overall economic operation is stable, the economic structure is continuously optimized, and people’s livelihood and welfare are continuously improved. For seven consecutive days, Economic Daily published a series of reviews on "Focus on Progress", focusing on seven key tasks put forward by last year’s Central Economic Work Conference, such as promoting coordinated regional development and accelerating economic system reform, comprehensively reviewing various reforms promoted in the past year, and showing the highlights and achievements of economic development.
The new pattern of regional coordinated development has accelerated the formation of major strategies, and the leading force has become stronger.
On October 24, 2018, the world’s longest sea-crossing bridge — — Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge officially opened to traffic.
The new pattern of regional coordinated development has been greatly improved.
On December 1st, the Outline of Regional Integration Development Plan of the Yangtze River Delta was officially released. This region, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the country’s total economic output, will focus on exploring the institutional system and path model of regional integration development, provide a demonstration for the national regional integration development, and lead China to participate in global cooperation and competition.
The CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core attaches great importance to regional coordinated development. Since the beginning of this year, major regional development strategies have been solidly promoted, new regional economic growth has been extremely rapid, regional sectors have been integrated and interacted, regional development coordination has been continuously enhanced, and a new mechanism for coordinated regional development with strong overall planning, orderly competition, green coordination and win-win sharing has been accelerated.
Major strategic leadership is stronger.
On September 25th, Daxing International Airport, located at the southernmost tip of Beijing’s central axis, was officially opened to traffic. Seen from the sky, the whole airport is like a giant phoenix spreading its wings. According to the plan, Daxing International Airport can meet the demand of annual passenger throughput of 100 million passengers in the long term and become a new engine to drive the development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2018 pointed out that there are many new features in the development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Yangtze River Delta and other regions, and these regions should be promoted to become important power sources leading high-quality development.
Fan Hengshan, former deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the regional economy has reached a critical period. The status of regional strategies and policies is rising day by day, and they are playing a more and more important role, especially the strategies and policies directly made by the central level are one after another, and the strength is rare.
— — In January, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader hosted a symposium on the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei in Beijing. In the same month, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council officially released the Guiding Opinions on Supporting Comprehensive Deepening Reform and Opening-up in xiong’an new area, Hebei Province;
— — In February, the full text of the Outline of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Plan was made public, and the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area entered the stage of paying equal attention to policy formulation and coordination and implementation;
— — In March, the seventh meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform deliberated and adopted the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Western Region in the New Era and Forming a New Pattern;
— — In May, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed at the symposium on promoting the rise of the central region that the comprehensive strength and competitiveness of the central region should be continuously enhanced, and efforts should be made to create a new situation for the rise of the central region.
— — In August, the "Master Plan for the New Land and Sea Passage in the West" was issued, which is an important measure to deepen the two-way opening of land and sea and promote the development of the western region to form a new pattern;
— — In September, when General Secretary of the Supreme Leader hosted a symposium on ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin in Henan Province, he pointed out that ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, like the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, are major national strategies;
— — In December, the Outline of Regional Integration Development Plan of the Yangtze River Delta was released. In the future, the Yangtze River Delta will become a strong and active growth pole for national development, a national model area for high-quality development, a leading area for basically realizing modernization, a demonstration area for regional integrated development and a new highland for reform and opening up in the new era.
Ma Qingbin, a researcher at China International Economic Exchange Center, believes that over the past year, China has put more emphasis on the leading role of major strategies such as the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the integration of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta, and the supporting role of the four major sectors; Emphasize the modernization of regional governance capacity and governance system, and promote the process of regional coordinated development with institutional construction such as rules and regulations; More emphasis should be placed on giving play to the decisive role of the market and the guiding role of the government, promoting the construction of market integration and breaking down the barriers of inter-regional factor flow; More emphasis is placed on soft factors such as reform, opening up and innovation in the process of regional coordination, and new impetus for endogenous growth of regional plates is stimulated.
The coordination of regional development continued to improve.
Over the past year, China has continued to promote the development of the western region, the overall revitalization of the northeast, the rise of the central region, the development of the eastern region, the bright spots of regional coordinated development, and the formation of a benign interactive situation in the regional economy.
In the east, innovation drives the first development.
In the face of the new era and new requirements, the eastern provinces and cities have taken active actions, taken the lead in exploring and taking the road of high-quality development, and provided valuable experience for other regions. Take the Yangtze River Delta as an example. From 2013 to 2018, the GDP of the Yangtze River Delta region grew at an average annual rate of 7.7%, 0.8 percentage points higher than that of the whole country. In 2018, R&D investment accounted for 2.82% of GDP, and the R&D investment intensity of three provinces and one city exceeded 2%. Since the beginning of this year, the investment in R&D in high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence, advanced computing and intelligent manufacturing in the eastern region has increased significantly, and new kinetic energy has accelerated.
In the west, seize the opportunity and continue to exert strength.
Western Development, "Belt and Road", Yangtze River Economic Belt, and a new land and sea passage in the west … … Today’s western region is changing from "the edge of the border" to the frontier of opening up, making solid progress in tackling poverty, improving infrastructure, and constantly showing its advantages of backwardness.
In the first three quarters of this year, the economic growth performance of western regions such as Yunnan, Tibet and Guizhou was still eye-catching.
The central region, taking advantage of the situation, rose rapidly.
In 2018, the economic growth rate of the central region ranked first in the "four major sectors". In the first three quarters of this year, the GDP growth rates of the six central provinces all outperformed the national level, among which Jiangxi achieved 8.6% growth, and the GDP growth rates of Hunan, Hubei and Anhui all reached 7.8%. From the perspective of economic aggregate, Henan, Hubei and Hunan occupy three seats in the top ten in China.
Northeast China, the pace of comprehensive revitalization has accelerated.
The data shows that from 2016 to 2018, the economic growth rate in Northeast China was 2.5%, 5.1% and 5.1% respectively, and the gap with the national average growth rate showed a gradual narrowing trend. In the first three quarters of this year, Liaoning’s economic growth rate reached 5.7%, which has remained above 5% for seven consecutive quarters. The added value of high-tech manufacturing in Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces increased by 25.0% and 12.3% respectively over the same period of last year, much higher than the industrial growth rate.
In Ma Qingbin’s view, the central, southwest and southeast areas have become the new golden triangle for China’s economic growth. At present, the internal factors of the development gap between the north and the south are more about the depth of reform and innovation ability, especially in the northeast area, which needs to strengthen the development momentum through its own reforms such as optimizing the business environment.
On August 26th, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed at the fifth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Committee that we should take the road of rational division of labor and optimized development according to the conditions of each region, implement the strategy of main functional areas, improve the spatial governance, and form a regional economic layout with complementary advantages and high-quality development.
"In 2020, China will move towards a new journey of basically realizing modernization on the basis of realizing a well-off society in an all-round way. In order to meet the requirements of this development goal, the national spatial structure will continue to be adjusted and optimized. " Feng Kui, a researcher at the Center for Urban and Small Town Reform and Development of the National Development and Reform Commission, believes that the direction of optimization and adjustment should be to implement the strategy of optimizing the main functional areas, improve spatial governance, form a regional economic layout with complementary advantages and high-quality development, and promote the rational division of labor and optimal development of various regions. In terms of regional spatial development, it is necessary to form different policies with finer spatial units and determined according to different main functional areas.
Speed up the construction of high-quality development power system
At present, the spatial structure of China’s economic development is undergoing profound changes, and central cities and urban agglomerations have become the main spatial forms bearing the development factors. Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party, held on July 30th, called for deepening the reform of system and mechanism, increasing the vitality and motivation of economic development, speeding up the implementation of major strategies and enhancing the functions of urban agglomerations.
Ma Qingbin believes that China’s regional economic development pays more attention to giving full play to the comparative advantages of various regions. In particular, the fifth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Committee put forward that "enhancing the economic and population carrying capacity of economically advantageous regions such as central cities and urban agglomerations, and enhancing the functions of other regions in ensuring food security, ecological security, and border security" means that the regional functional orientation is further clarified and ruled by law.
In recent years, the construction of urban agglomerations in China has made remarkable progress, and the development of urban agglomerations such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta has become a national strategy. Inter-provincial urban agglomerations such as Chengdu-Chongqing, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the Central Plains, Harbin-Changzhou and Beibu Gulf have more sound working mechanisms, smoother infrastructure, more unified and orderly markets, more mutually beneficial sharing of public services, and the pace of development of metropolitan areas within urban agglomerations has obviously accelerated. The construction of urban agglomerations in several provinces is also progressing in an orderly manner.
"Overall, the agglomeration and driving effect of China’s urban agglomerations continues to increase, and the function of supporting and serving regional and even national development is more optimized." Meng Wei, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, said.
"Central cities and urban agglomerations further gather elements, which is the main battlefield of economic construction." Feng Kui said that Beijing and Tianjin will continue to play the role of central cities, leading the development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration and promoting the coordinated development of the Bohai Rim region; Shanghai will lead the development of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration and promote the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt; Take Hongkong, Macau, Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the center to lead the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and drive the Pearl River — Xijiang Economic Belt is innovative and green; Focusing on Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Xi ‘an, it will lead the development of urban agglomerations such as Chengdu-Chongqing, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the Central Plains and the Guanzhong Plain, and promote the integration and development of related sectors.
In Feng Kui’s view, in order to meet the needs of the implementation of the national strategy, there will be some regional central cities that will play a radiation or linkage function in the large regional development pattern by becoming bigger and stronger. For example, he said that Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei linkage with the Central Plains urban agglomeration requires a regional central city like Handan to play a role, but from the current situation, Handan’s role is not enough. "The growth of regional central cities will also be a new kinetic energy for future regional economic development". (Economic Daily China Economic Net reporter Xiong Li)
