On August 19th, "Sun Island Forum and Northeast Revitalization Forum" was grandly opened in Harbin. According to China Economic Weekly, Harbin Mayor Song Xibin, Shenyang Mayor Pan Liguo, Changchun Executive Vice Mayor Zhang Jingying, Dalian Executive Vice Mayor Cao Aihua, State Taxation Administration of The People’s Republic of China former deputy director Xu Shanda, China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute President Chi Fulin and Gree Electric Chairman Dong Mingzhu delivered keynote speeches at the forum.
Guanhai Jieju noted that Harbin, Shenyang, Changchun and Dalian are all sub-provincial cities. What did the four city leaders talk about at the meeting? What does it mean for star entrepreneurs to appear in Northeast China?
What is a provincial city?
Its predecessor was a city with separate plans, which occupied an important economic position.
The reporter of Guanhai Jieju inquired about the public information and found that the sub-provincial city is a provincial-level city with a sub-provincial administrative structure in People’s Republic of China (PRC). Its predecessor was a city with separate plans, and the administrative level of the main leaders of its party and government organs was deputy provincial (ministerial) officials. However, at the level of administrative divisions, sub-provincial cities still belong to provincial cities and are under the jurisdiction of their provincial administrative regions.
At present, there are 15 sub-provincial cities in China, namely: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Wuhan, Shenyang, Xi ‘an, Chengdu, Jinan, Hangzhou, Harbin, Changchun, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen and Ningbo. Among them, Qingdao, Dalian, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen are cities under separate state planning, while others are provincial capitals.
The academic magazine Sankei Review sponsored by Jinan University once published an article saying that after years of development, 15 sub-provincial cities have occupied a very important position in the national economic system. The regional GDP, fiscal revenue, per capita disposable income of residents, foreign capital utilization and import and export volume of sub-provincial cities have maintained rapid growth.
According to the statistics of reporters from Guanhai Jieju, China’s GDP in 2015 was 676.708 billion yuan, of which the total GDP of 15 sub-provincial cities was 136.165 billion yuan, accounting for 20.12% of the national GDP in 2015. The total GDP of four sub-provincial cities in Northeast China accounts for 19.3% of the total GDP of 15 sub-provincial cities in China. It can be seen that 15 sub-provincial cities have become an important part of China’s economic development.
Why did the leaders of the four cities get together?
Release the Declaration to Build a World-class Urban Agglomeration
Xinhua News Agency reported that the "Sun Island Forum and Northeast Revitalization Forum" was held until the evening of the 20th, and the four municipal governments of Harbin, Shenyang, Dalian and Changchun jointly issued the "Sun Island Declaration of the Northeast Four Cities of the 2016 Sun Island Forum and Northeast Revitalization Forum", which is planned to build a regional economic community through joint actions in five aspects, including strengthening linkage and building a world-class urban agglomeration.
By strengthening exchanges and cooperation, we will promote the coordinated development of industries, give play to the carrier role of Dalian Jinpu New District, Harbin New District, Changchun New District and Sino-German (Shenyang) high-end equipment manufacturing industrial park, and establish a strategic alliance for cross-regional industrial technological innovation and a mechanism for transforming scientific and technological achievements.
The four cities will strengthen the core driving role and build a world-class urban agglomeration. Learn from the advanced experience of the coordinated development of the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and promote the coordinated development of the Liaoning coastal economic belt, the Chang-Ji-Tu development and opening-up pilot zone, and the Harbin-Changsha urban agglomeration to jointly lead the comprehensive revitalization. In addition, it will also create a new pattern of regional public services and regional market integration, as well as an economic community open to the outside world.
How to unite the four cities?
Location advantage and natural resources activate market space.
What are the potential advantages of this "golden signboard" jointly built by four sub-provincial cities in the three northeastern provinces?
The reporter of Guanhai Jieju inquired about the public information and found that the Sankei Review published a paper entitled "Research on Urban Development Model: Taking China’s Sub-provincial Cities as an Example" (hereinafter referred to as "Cities"), which classified 15 sub-provincial cities in China.
Among them, Dalian and Shenyang are capital-driven cities, which are characterized by gathering capital inside and outside the region by relying on their comparative advantages such as economic conditions and transportation location. Dalian enjoys a natural port advantage, attracting investment from inside and outside the region through the port, thus promoting the development of urban economy. Shenyang is a railway hub in Northeast China and an important industrial base in China, with outstanding geographical and economic conditions.
Harbin and Changchun are classified as industrial development cities. It is characterized by promoting the development of upstream and downstream related industries based on certain natural resources or industrial base, and then promoting the economic development of the whole city. Harbin is an important heavy industry city in northern China, while Changchun is the cradle of China’s automobile industry.
The declaration issued by the above four cities at the Sun Island Forum stated that they would learn from the development experience of the Pearl River Delta and other places to build a world-class urban agglomeration. The article "City" classifies Guangzhou, a city included in the Pearl River Delta, as a market-oriented city. The development mode of this kind of city mainly refers to the cultivation, construction and development of the market, and the gathering and diffusion of economic activities to promote the development of urban economy from bottom to top.
It can be seen that these four sub-provincial cities, combining their own capital advantages and industrial advantages, may achieve the revitalization of the Northeast economy by building a linkage system and building a larger market space.
What did Dong Mingzhu say?
Gree new energy vehicles will be produced in Northeast China.
Cao Yuanzheng, deputy director of the Expert Research Committee of China Northeast Revitalization Research Institute, said that the Northeast issue has a long history. The economy in Northeast China is dominated by the secondary industry, with slow industrial growth and low industrial efficiency, which is not only the reason that restricted the economic development in Northeast China in the last round, but also the cause of the economic difficulties in Northeast China in this round.
Cao Yuanzheng proposed to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, and give full play to the special geographical advantages of Northeast China, which has potential for development in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and related industries, while the tertiary industry in Northeast China has broad prospects for development. Therefore, while promoting the development of high-tech industries, the focus of innovation should also be on the primary and tertiary industries, so as to create employment opportunities and increase residents’ income.
China Economic Weekly reported that Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree Group, delivered a keynote speech on "Innovation is an eternal topic" at this forum, proposing that Gree’s development strategy is: innovation, leadership, challenges and responsibilities, and that Gree’s new energy vehicles must be produced in Northeast China.
Guanhai Jieju noted that the previous day, on the evening of August 18th, Gree Electric announced its acquisition plan. After negotiation, it finally planned to acquire 100% equity of Zhuhai Yinlong New Energy Co., Ltd. at a price of 13 billion yuan. After the acquisition, Zhuhai Yinlong will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gree Electric.
Yinlong’s main business is the research, development, production and sales of lithium batteries and new energy vehicles. This means that Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree, is ambitious for new energy vehicles and energy storage.
Dong Mingzhu believes that everyone is talking about the revitalization of the Northeast, which is precisely an opportunity for enterprises to rise and also an opportunity made in China. China manufacturing must change the world with technology, and transform the speed of China into the quality of China. It is reported that Dong Mingzhu frequently met with local government leaders during his trip to Northeast China and actively promoted and expanded his business.
Data of NDRC in the first half of the year:
Cliff-like decline in investment in fixed assets
According to the Economic Information Daily, Zhao Chenxi, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, said recently that the "Three-year Rolling Implementation Plan for Promoting the Revitalization of Old Industrial Bases in Northeast China" will be issued soon, clarifying 137 key tasks to be introduced from 2016 to 2018, as well as 127 major supporting projects, involving transportation, energy, water conservancy, industry, agriculture, urban and rural construction and other fields.
It is reported that in the first half of this year, the year-on-year GDP growth rates of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces were 5.7%, 6.7% and -1% respectively, which were higher than those in the first quarter.
Since 2013, the Northeast economy has entered a new stage of adjustment and transformation. Liaoning’s economy was dragged down by the decline in fixed assets investment and industrial added value above designated size, especially in the first half of this year, the fixed assets investment fell by 58.1%, which was under great pressure.
In the first half of this year, the local fiscal revenues in Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces improved significantly, especially in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, which rose by 6 and 22.2 percentage points respectively, reflecting that some positive changes have begun to appear in the northeast economy.
From the perspective of cities, the situation of comprehensive cities in Northeast China is good, especially Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin and Dalian, which are four central cities, have a good development momentum, but the situation of cities with single industry, especially resource-based cities, is poor. Judging from the investment in fixed assets and the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size, many large and medium-sized cities in Liaoning Province have declined.
Although Liaoning’s economy is facing downward difficulties, the innovation and development with supply-side structural reform as the main line is also accelerating. From January to May, the growth rate of industrial added value of four traditional pillar industries in Liaoning Province declined, while strategic emerging industries such as robots, civil aviation, integrated circuit equipment and new materials maintained a high growth rate.
This shows that the transformation of internal economic kinetic energy in Northeast China is accelerating, the endogenous power is strengthening, and the quality of economic development has improved. It should also be noted that, on the one hand, the traditional industries in Northeast China still account for a high proportion of industry, and the emerging industries are still growing, so it is still difficult to make up for the economic reduction caused by the decline of traditional industries, and it will take some time for the transformation of old and new kinetic energy; On the other hand, global technological change and industrial revolution have brought new opportunities for transformation to the old industrial base in Northeast China, which has huge advantages in industrial stock.