This article is from WeChat public account: Suning wealth of information (ID: SuningWealthInsights) , author: Fu Yifu (Suning Institute of consumer financial Financial Research Center Director Assistant, Senior Researcher), Original title: “Yangtze River Delta rises! What is the meaning behind the ambitious strategy that affects 225 million people? “, The title picture comes from: Visual China …………
The Yangtze River Delta once again stood on the air vent.
A few days ago, the Outline of the Yangtze River Delta Regional Integration Development Plan was officially released. This is another heavyweight programmatic document after the Outline of the Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area complement each other to improve China’s reform and opening up space.
The “Outline” not only outlines the blueprint for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta from various aspects such as industrial development, infrastructure, public services, environmental protection, etc., but also sets out the ambitious goals to be achieved by 2025 and 2035. Extremely exciting.
Since the concept of “jointly building a world-class city group” was clarified at the end of 2017, all regions in the Yangtze River Delta have begun to explore new mechanisms for coordinated regional development: from the establishment of the Yangtze River Delta Regional Cooperation Office to the compilation of “Yangtze River Delta Integrated Development for Three Years The Action Plan, and the launch of various thematic cooperation … Now, the introduction of the “Outline” has raised the integration of the Yangtze River Delta to a new level.
The deep meaning behind it is intriguing.
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The Yangtze River Delta is an important meeting point of the “Belt and Road” and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, including the four sections of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui. It is recognized as the most economically vibrant and open in the country. One of the regions with the strongest innovation ability is also China’s largest city group.
Since the 1980s, the country has begun to explore the implementation of the urban agglomeration development mechanism in the Yangtze River Delta region. With the passage of time, the contacts and exchanges between the provinces, cities and regions of the Yangtze River Delta have become closer, and the corresponding cooperation and development mechanisms have also continuously entered new fields. Today’s Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, together with the Northeast Atlantic Coastal Urban Agglomeration in the United States, the five Great Lakes urban agglomerations in North America, the Tokaido urban agglomeration in Japan, the northwestern European urban agglomeration, and the central and southern British urban agglomerations, are collectively referred to as the “six largest urban agglomerations in the world” .
In terms of economic and social development, the achievements of the Yangtze River Delta are amazing. According to statistics, the total economic volume of the country in 2018 was 90.03 trillion yuan, and the Yangtze River Delta accounted for 3.7% of the country’s land area and about 16% of the population, contributing nearly 1/4 of the country’s GDP.
From the perspective of the city, 6 of the 16 GDP “trillion club” cities in the country are located in the Yangtze River Delta, namely Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, and Ningbo. label = “Remarks”> (see the figure below) , among which Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Ningbo rely on their economic, environmental, employment, and livable advantages to rank among the second only “New Tier 1 City” camp.
Besides cities, the economic strength of counties in the Yangtze River Delta should not be underestimated. According to the 2019 National Top 100 Counties List released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, a total of 45 counties in the Yangtze River Delta region are on the list; Kunshan, Jiangyin, Zhangjiagang, and Changshu of Jiangsu Province rank among the top four. The mechanism innovation and regional coordination have played a significant role in demonstration, and are called the locomotive that leads the country’s county economy in high quality..
At the same time, After years of development, all provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta have formed their own advantageous industrial systems. Specifically, Shanghai, an international metropolis, is the nation ’s economic, financial, trade, shipping, and science and technology innovation center. It has a very important position and role in the economic construction and social development of the Yangtze River Delta and the country; Jiangsu has developed Manufacturing and rich science and education resources, with a high degree of openness and profound historical and cultural heritage; Zhejiang’s advantages are that the Internet and digital economy are at the leading domestic level, and the private economy is quite developed, and the ecological environment is beautiful; as for Anhui, it is characterized by active innovation Strong, distinctive manufacturing characteristics, good ecological resources, vast inland hinterland.
In addition, from the perspective of income growth, the per capita disposable income of Shanghai residents increased by 8.8% in 2018. Most cities in Jiangsu Province lived between 8.4% and 12.3%, and cities in Zhejiang Province lived between 8.6% and 9.9%. Cities mostly lived in 8.1% to 9.1%, all significantly higher than the national 6.5%. Superimposed by the bright neon lights on the Bund, Nanjing ’s vocal “China First Commercial District” Xinjiekou, the bustling tourists along the West Lake in Hangzhou, the bustling Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street in Hefei, the bustling and prosperous Yangtze River Delta really envy others.
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Although economic and social development has achieved fruitful results, if we look at it with higher standards, there are still many deep bottlenecks in the integration process of the Yangtze River Delta region that have not been properly resolved, mainly including the following four aspects:
First, the administrative color needs to be further weakened.
The opening of the integration process in the Yangtze River Delta can be said to be driven by administrative will, so government departments have played a pivotal role in the development of the Yangtze River Delta. Nowadays, the economic development of many places is still dominated by administrative colors. Not only is it easy to divert the integration of the Yangtze River Delta from the best path, but also because of the uncoordinated interest coordination mechanism in various places, in order to maximize their own interests in non-cooperative games. And damage the overall development efficiency. This is also a major problem facing the integration of the Yangtze River Delta.
Second, regional economic development is uneven.
Although the overall strength of the Yangtze River Delta is strong, the problem of imbalanced development among various regions within the Yangtze River Delta is still serious, which will inevitably hinder the good progress of the Yangtze River Delta integration. In addition to the influence of political and institutional factors, the main reason for the imbalance in regional economic development is that talent, capital, information, technology, etc.Factor differences within.
Specifically, factor resources in Shanghai, southern Jiangsu, and northern Zhejiang are more abundant, and the policy environment is also extremely friendly, while the northern provinces of northern Jiangsu, southern Zhejiang, and Anhui are relatively scarce, which directly leads to industry differences and factor resources The rich regions have formed their own characteristic industries and advantageous industries, while the regional development that does not have advantageous industries is relatively backward and passive, which has widened the gap over time.
Third, industries in different regions are homogeneous, and the level of industrial agglomeration is not high.
Relevant data shows that more than half of the cities in the core area of the Yangtze River Delta regard automobiles, petrochemicals, and communications as key development industries. It should be noted that industrial agglomeration is not simply repetition and concentration, but rather the integration of industry and the integration of production and cities. The purpose is to achieve intensive use of resources and the integration of industrial functions, and requires enterprises to strengthen information exchange and cooperation to achieve complementary advantages, Misplaced competition and link development will further enhance overall competitiveness. However, the repetitive construction of industries in the Yangtze River Delta region is currently serious, which inevitably causes waste of resources and insufficient levels of agglomeration.
Fourth, the coordination between cities is not enough.
From the status quo of the development of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, a reasonable urban hierarchy and division of labor system have not been formed, the functions and management systems of each city are biased toward their own policies, and the benefit sharing and industrial coordination mechanisms are not clear enough. For example, resources for innovation elements such as scientific databases and expert databases among provinces and cities have not yet been shared, and R & D investment in each region is also exclusive, unwilling to share spillover effects brought about by technology. The inter-city coordination and linkage is insufficient, and it is difficult to exert the effect of urban agglomeration, affecting the integrated development process of the Yangtze River Delta.
In this context, the “official declaration” of the “Outline” can be described as the right time. It marks the overall acceleration of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and the country’s further exploration and practice of its high-quality development.
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Looking at the world, regional integration is the general trend. The acceleration of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta has further catered to the mainstream of the current era.
Looking at the history of the world’s development, there have been city groups such as the New York Bay Area in the United States, the Tokyo Bay Area in Japan, and the London Metropolis in the United Kingdom. They have set an example for the world, where the world’s most competitive high-quality resources are gathered, regardless Is it an enterprise, a research institute or a talent. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is also a follower of this trend.
World Bank report shows that Earth