“Now the development of all cities, I think a core lies in people.”
Editor’s note: This article is from The economic Observer , author: Chen Po, authorized reprint
This is an era when companies follow people and people follow the city.
This is the vice president of China Urban Planning Association and Li Xiaojiang, member of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development Expert Advisory Committee. Since the 1980s, he has hosted or participated in the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Xiong’an New District. And major regional planning such as the coordinated development of the Pearl River Delta cities.
Li Xiaojiang, who often contacts entrepreneurs, found that for some high-tech, the difficulty is not to choose which city to land, but whether to recruit the talents they want after landing. He believes that the city’s own attraction to talent is the most important driving force for this round of urban development.
From 2018, a new round of “grabbing wars” has been set up everywhere. According to data from the Central Plains Real Estate Research Center, as of October 2019, more than 150 cities across the country have issued various talent policies, up 40% year-on-year.
In the period of demographic adjustment, some cities have felt the pressure of labor and various talent shortages. Under this circumstance, attracting the population has become the focus of urban competition – this is one of the important basis for Li Xiaojiang’s views.
Li Xiaojiang said that this round of talent competition, each city to attract talents with first-class public services, quality of life, high income, housing subsidies and education and medical support.
He found that although so many cities have issued talent policies, there are not many cities that are really attractive. Most people still choose Beishangguangshen, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and so on. “Why? These cities have attractive basic conditions in their own right.”
Why can Shenzhen gather so many science and technology enterprises? Because Shenzhen is attractive enough for talent. In an exclusive interview with the Economic Observer, Li Xiaojiang gave a conclusion: This round is a good city development attraction, and talents drive industrial layout and urban development.
Exploring the future urban development path
Economic Observer: The first construction land for Xiong’an’s transaction recently. What role should central enterprises, state-owned enterprises and private enterprises play in the development and construction of Xiong’an?
Li Xiaojiang: The development of Xiong’an must rely on market-oriented forces and rely on the participation of central enterprises, state-owned enterprises and private enterprises. It is definitely not the strength of one party to realize the development of the new district.
The housing and land are not the main development goals of Xiong’an. Xiong’an hopes to cultivate a future innovative city with a new mechanism. This is the most important issue.Exhibition strategy.
In the past, most of China’s urban development model was to obtain land finance by constantly selling land. Land income should be a reasonable part of a city’s income structure, but it is impossible to achieve innovation in the Xiong’an New District by continuing this development model that relies on land revenue.
I have always believed that Xiong’an New District is a pathfinder in the second half of China’s urbanization. It should try to explore a new development way to get rid of the past path.
Economic Observer: Will the land model of Xiong’an New District be brand new?
Li Xiaojiang: When you see the land transfer, it will be regarded as the future development direction of Xiong’an New District. This may be a bit over-interpreted. I don’t think Xiong’an state-owned construction land sales means that we must take the path of land finance.
The Xiong’an New District shoulders the heavy responsibility of the country to explore a new development path. We don’t want land finance or real estate. The core is that we cannot rely on real estate.
Economic Observer: What is the progress of the construction of Xiong’an New District?
Li Xiaojiang: Actually, the real core area of Xiong’an New District has not yet started construction, and more is doing some preliminary work. Development and construction is a very complex process that covers many peripheral projects and core projects.
Urban construction requires a gradual process, starting with infrastructure such as transportation and pipelines. For example, Xiong’an Railway Station was built a year ago; followed by the most basic development factors such as electricity and water; To land development, housing construction, etc.
How to get to the second half of urbanization
Economic Observer: Where does the vitality of Xiong’an New District come from?
Li Xiaojiang: Xiong’an wants to be a dynamic city. The core is not to invest much, but a good living environment and develop public services. This is the basic needs of people’s lives and long-term living. To meet this demand, Xiong’an New District will be attractive to people, and enterprises will follow up.
The quality of first-class life, first-class public services and population density are related to the size of the population. It is a complex and cyclical relationship. The core is people-oriented and creating an attractive environment, which is the prerequisite for the success of urban development.
Economic Observer: How should other towns inspire the city?
Li Xiaojiang: When the enterprise comes, people follow the enterprise; when the population gathers, the city will prosper. This is the logic of the first half of urbanization. The reason is poverty. First, we must increase income and improve living standards. Business walks.
This round is the talent to drive the industrial layout and urban development. Ask today’s young people, Guangzhou to live well, Shenzhen life is good, is to choose the unit first, or choose the city first? It must be the first place in the city. Can you combine a good family, can children go to the best schools? I want to choose a city for a long time, and then choose a career that I like.
We alsoAnother phenomenon was discovered. The twin cities in Guangzhou and Shenzhen lived in the best cities, but the work may be in another nearby city. It is more and more common to commute through the traffic between the two places.
This is the basic feature of the middle class society. In the course of our daily participation in some corporate work, some companies will make it clear that it is not that I will come or not, but whether I can recruit the talents I want after I come.
Economic Observer: The small street profile is a popular urban design concept. Do you think there is any connection between this design and the city’s vitality?
Li Xiaojiang: It’s not that pop is a return. In ancient China, the cities in the early days of capitalist countries were all “narrow roads and small nets”. The small street profile is a design concept advocated by the country and hopes to return to the urban development itself.
Small neighborhoods are open neighborhoods that represent a city size. Only China in the world will surround every block with walls. Our roads don’t need to be as wide. For example, now a block is one kilometer, two kilometers, four hundred and five hundred meters, the number of roads is very small, all traffic is Focus on limited roads.
When the traffic network is encrypted, all places can pass, traffic pressure is balanced, and people travel is convenient. This is another mode of transportation.
The more the road is repaired, the more unhumanized it is. When you walk on the street, you usually feel that you are not a human being at all, but like an ant. But if you walk in a very narrow neighborhood, you will feel that you and the environment are integrated.
There is a saying in Guangdong that there is no road in the wide road. The wide road must be no one, and there will be no good shops. Therefore, I think that the “narrow road dense network small block” is a return to the urban space supply.
Urbanization is not just a path
Economic Observer: A view that the economic development gap between China’s regions is large, and how to reflect on the new urbanization ideas?
Li Xiaojiang: China has always used the concept of urbanization. Urbanization and urbanization are only one word difference. In fact, it is a concern for different mass cities.
China has two clear systems, one is the urban system and the other is the town system. The concept of urbanization is because China has more than 200 county-level cities and more than 1,800 county towns.
When we emphasize urbanization, it means that people want to flow into more than 600 cities in China; but when we talk about urbanization, we need to consider multiple levels and different levels of cities, both Beijing and Shanghai. Large cities should also consider medium-sized cities and small cities, sinking in layers.
A large number of new populations are gathered in the county every year, and even non-agricultural labor is carried out in the town. In the past 10 years, more than 50% of China’s new population has not entered large and medium-sized cities, but gathered in county towns.
From rural life to urban life, from agricultural studentsProduction labor becomes non-agricultural production labor, which is the process of urbanization.
Economic Observer: Is the metropolitan area or urban agglomeration a model of urbanization?
Li Xiaojiang: This is a kind of urbanization or a kind of urbanization. In terms of ambiguity, there is no special gap between urbanization and urbanization. It is a process in which people shift from agriculture to non-agriculture and from rural to urban areas.
Utopia, super-city, urban agglomeration, and metropolitan area are a form of population gathering, but not unique. We have never seen all advanced developed countries. The population is concentrated in a large city. It still has medium cities, small cities and small towns.
Economic Observer: Why did Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei not form an urban agglomeration? Is the Xiong’an New District a breakthrough point?
Li Xiaojiang: The development of the Pearl River Delta comes from Hong Kong and the international market. It is a transition from an exogenous economy to a domestic demand economy, or a structure with both external and domestic demand. The Yangtze River Delta relies more on Shanghai’s radiation to form a regional pattern. . From the comparison of location patterns, the density and distance of the Pearl River Delta are much more compact than the Yangtze River Delta.
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei is also a form of urban agglomeration, but the degree of development and regional integration is much lower than that of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. The problem is that the development gap is too large.
The formation of urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas is diverse and diverse. The geographical space of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei is different, the location is different, the regional culture is different, and the economic structure, industrial structure and social structure are different. The driving is certainly different.
The important point of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy is to explore the optimal development model of economically populated areas, that is, urban agglomerations. The cultivation of the Xiong’an New District by optimizing the spatial layout is actually to improve the spatial structure of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, thus changing the industrial and demographic economic layout of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei.
The Beijing City Sub-center is also a direction that appropriately distorts the overly complex functions of the central city of Beijing. This is also the spatial structure adjustment of an urban agglomeration.
Urban development needs to cater to people’s needs
Economic Observer: What impact will the introduction of new policies on the second half of urbanization?
Li Xiaojiang: First of all, China’s demographic structure is undergoing a major change, and the labor force is decreasing, reducing by 4 million to 6 million per year. There is a shortage of labor, so in the past few years, it has been difficult for enterprises to recruit workers, and it is difficult for college students to find employment. It is difficult for them to find their ideal jobs.
Where is the problem? In the past, we have developed labor-intensive industries and added 10 million new jobs every year. The main problem is the employment of migrant workers. In recent years, the number of new peasant workers has increased to more than 1 million each year, but 8.5 million new college graduates are added each year, and more than 8.7 million people may be in 2019. The newly-employed population in China has changed from migrant workers to university students.
University students are the reserve army of the new middle class, their pricesValues, lifestyles, and migrant workers are different. They choose the city in which they live, and then choose to work. Therefore, in order to attract university students, the city must introduce a talent policy to attract.
Many places do feel the pressure of labor supply and population supply. More than 100 cities in more than 600 cities nationwide have begun to decline. All cities are stabilizing locals and attracting new populations. Under this circumstance, attracting people has become the focus of competition between cities.
The development model has also changed. In the past, it only focused on production and disregarded life; it only paid attention to industry and did not pay attention to services; it only paid attention to GDP growth and did not pay attention to the improvement of social public services. This extensive mode does not work.
The core of the second half of the transformation is that cities must adapt to population structure, total population, labor supply, and labor structure to adjust policies.
Economic Observer: But some people will understand the policy of attracting talents as disguised loosening restrictions?
Li Xiaojiang: Some local governments may have such impulses. The system design is based on land finance and real estate dependence. Any local government that leaves the land may not survive. If you rely on real estate for a long time, it may really be that you want to sell more houses and get more land revenue.
This round of reforms has entered the deep water area. The first half of the development process that can be done and easy to do has already been done. There is absolutely no such cheap thing in the second half. Long-term adoption of land finance and real estate dependence means that it is impossible to create a city that really attracts manpower.
While the living conditions of Chinese residents have improved, the living environment has not improved, but has deteriorated. The higher the size of our real estate, the 30- or 40-story residence has no quality of life at all. If you can start the fire, can you imagine it? Even if the pipeline is updated in the future, what should be done to update the equipment? Is the social neighborhood relationship destroyed? Such a building is destined to be highly dependent on the safe operation of all systems, and if an environment goes wrong, it will trigger a very complicated chain reaction.
The risk is too great, and high-rise housing is one of the most serious problems in the future of Chinese society. Such a high-density development, I think, is an extremely inhuman development, which is actually caused by land finance and real estate dependence.
So, now the height of the building in Xiong’an New District is controlled at 45 meters, what is the concept of 45 meters? 15 floors. The height of the Beijing City Sub-center is more strictly controlled, 36 meters, 12 floors. Buildings like this, even if there is a power outage, we can go on ourselves.
The development of all cities now, I think a core lies in people. As long as there are people who are easy to handle, the development of industry has a labor force, and the development of high-tech talents. These people are pursuing a good living environment, good quality of life, good public services, good schools, good hospitals, and if they violate this development law, the city will eventually fail.