54 "100 Billion Counties" Decode: The GDP of this county-level city exceeds that of 8 provincial capital cities! Province | Mode | County level City
County economy is an important driving force for stabilizing the macroeconomic situation. In the past year, county-level economic development represented by "billions of counties" has shown strong momentum.
According to the "2023 China County Economy Top 100 Research" released by CCID Consulting on the 25th, 54 counties have entered the "GDP Billion Club" among the top 100 counties this year, achieving a GDP of 8.6 trillion yuan, accounting for 7.1% of the total national economy, an increase of 10 from last year.
Among the "100 billion yuan counties" in GDP, Jiangsu has 21 seats, accounting for 38.89%; Zhejiang followed suit, occupying 9 seats; 6 in Fujian; Five in Shandong. At the same time, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have a leading number of top counties in terms of GDP, and the number of counties on the list with GDP in the range of 100 billion to 200 billion yuan is also ahead of other regions.
The Six Development Models of "Hundred Billion Counties"
In 2022, the total economic output of "100 billion counties" achieved rapid growth, with 49 counties and cities experiencing nominal growth rates exceeding the same period nationwide, and 10 counties and cities experiencing nominal growth rates exceeding 10%. The nominal GDP growth rates of Ejin Horo Banner, Zhungeer Banner, and Shenmu City led the country at 18.7%, 17.6%, and 17.2%, respectively, with year-on-year GDP increases of 22.84 billion yuan, 22.92 billion yuan, and 38.33 billion yuan, respectively; The nominal growth rate of Hai'an City, Rudong County, Ningxiang City, and Rongcheng City is less than 3%.
Fujian, Hunan, Anhui, Inner Mongolia and other counties on the top 100 list have GDP in the range of 100 billion to 200 billion yuan, second only to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but the number of counties below 100 billion yuan on the list is relatively small. This indicates that the development quality of the top counties in these provinces is relatively high, but there are significant regional differences. Shandong, Hubei, and Sichuan have a higher ranking in the range below 100 billion yuan, indicating that these three provinces have great development potential and sufficient development momentum.
The total number of permanent residents in "100 billion counties" in the western region is often small, and the per capita GDP ranks among the top. For example, the per capita GDP of Ejin Horo Banner, Shenmu City, and Zhungeer Banner exceeded that of Jiangyin City and Kunshan City with 492000 yuan, 390000 yuan, and 362000 yuan, respectively.
In terms of county ranking, Kunshan City's GDP has exceeded the 500 billion yuan mark, becoming the first county in the country to exceed 500 billion yuan. If we compare Kunshan with cities at or above the prefecture level, the total GDP of Kunshan exceeds that of eight provincial capitals such as Guiyang and Lanzhou.
The GDP of Jiangyin City reached 475.418 billion, just over 20 billion yuan away from the top ranked Kunshan; Zhangjiagang City and Jinjiang City have exceeded 300 billion yuan; The GDP of Changshu City, Cixi City, Yixing City, Shenmu City, and Changsha County has exceeded 200 billion yuan.
The report believes that based on high-quality economic development clusters and urban agglomerations in county areas, six typical development models have been formed in the current "100 billion county":
One is the innovation driven leading model of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, represented by cities such as Kunshan, Jiangyin, Cixi, and Yiwu; The second is the leading model driven by industrial clusters in the Guangdong Fujian Zhejiang coastal urban agglomeration, represented by cities such as Jinjiang and Nan'an; The third is the regional integration driven model of the Changsha Zhuzhou Xiangtan urban agglomeration, represented by Changsha County, Liuyang City, and Ningxiang City; The fourth is the traditional industrial upgrading driven leading model of the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration, represented by Longkou City and Jiaozhou City; The fifth is the resource driven dominant model of the Hubao Eyu urban agglomeration, represented by Shenmu City and Zhungeer Banner; The sixth model is driven by core enterprises, with Renhuai City as a typical example.
For example, the characteristic of the innovation driven dominant model in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration is that the agglomeration effect of innovation factors is obvious, regional development has been integrated into the global industrial system, and industrial upgrading and technological innovation development have been preliminarily achieved. It has begun to transform into a stage driven by new technologies and factors such as knowledge, data, and advanced innovative talents, and the knowledge economy and innovation economy have become important new driving forces for development.
Yu Debiao, Business Director of CCID Consulting and Director of County Economic Research Center, stated in an interview with First Financial News that this year's "100 billion counties" have increased by 10 compared to the previous year, and an increasing number of counties have a total economic output exceeding 100 billion. In the future, more counties with a total economic output exceeding that of cities will become normalized.
"In the future, there may be 500 billion level counties and cities, as well as trillion level counties and cities. Therefore, when formulating development goals, it is necessary to combine the long, medium, and short term, and appropriately elevate the development goals. More counties and cities should aim for the development goals of '100 billion yuan counties'. To enhance the position and role of' 100 billion yuan counties' in the strategy of strengthening the province, and highlight the cultivation of key regional economic strong counties," said Yu Debiao.
County-level industrial clusters have emerged one after another
County economy is an important support for the high-quality development of the six major economic provinces. In terms of economic size, in 2021, except for Guangdong, the GDP of counties under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan and other provinces accounted for over 40% of the province's GDP. Among them, the GDP of counties under the jurisdiction of Henan accounted for 59.3% of the province's GDP.
From 2016 to 2021, the gross domestic product of county-level regions in China increased from 33.1 trillion yuan to 43.2 trillion yuan, and the number of industrial enterprises above designated size fluctuated from 198256 to 203465. In 2021, the number of industrial enterprises above designated size reached its peak in nearly six years; From 2018 to 2021, the general public budget revenue of Chinese counties increased from 2417.64 billion yuan to 2533.86 billion yuan.
Yu Debiao told reporters that the overall ranking of the top 100 counties this year shows a trend of stability in the eastern region, decline in the central region, and growth in the western region. With the transfer of industries from the eastern and central regions to the western regions and the further implementation of regional coordinated development strategies, the advantages of western counties in project landing and capital resource inflow are gradually expanding.
The report suggests that in recent years, high-level county-level industrial clusters have emerged one after another. For example, multiple industrial clusters such as the Yixing Water Environment Industry Cluster, Tianmen Biomedical Industry Cluster, Changshu New Energy Vehicle Core Parts Industry Cluster, and Xiantao High tech Zone Non woven Fabric Industry Cluster have been included in the pilot of innovative industrial clusters by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Leqing Electric Cluster in Wenzhou, Zhejiang has become the only county-level industrial cluster selected for the list of winners in the national advanced manufacturing cluster competition finals.
In addition, nearly 40% of the characteristic industrial clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises are located in counties, concentrated in the manufacturing field. In 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology selected the first batch of 100 characteristic industrial clusters for small and medium-sized enterprises. Among them, 39 are located in counties and are distributed in manufacturing industries such as metal products, electrical machinery, and equipment manufacturing.
At the same time, counties are also an important carrier of regional real economy. From the perspective of industrial entities, in 2021, the number of industrial enterprises above designated size in counties such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Henan exceeded 15000.
However, the report also points out that the regional distribution of county-level economies is still uneven. There are problems such as a large span of economic scale between the top and bottom counties, a rapid decline in the proportion of secondary industry in the county, slow conversion of old and new driving forces, and relatively lagging supporting factors required for industrial development.
When it comes to how to cultivate more economically strong counties in the future, Yu Debiao suggests promoting the cultivation of core counties and cities in provinces that currently do not have benchmark counties such as the top 100 or "100 billion" counties; Promote the development of single core demonstration provinces towards a multi-point leading model; The development of county-level economy in the "geese walking mode" is accelerating towards the "wolf pack mode" county-level development; Promote Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as typical "wolf pack model" counties, to move towards higher levels of development.
"The county development model led by the 'wolf pack model' in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and other regions has initially achieved balanced development across the entire county. Therefore, it is more necessary to pay attention to the allocation of various factors in the entire region, and reflect a fair and just provincial-level county development orientation. Specifically, Jiangsu should emphasize the north-south coordination of the county, while Zhejiang should highlight the linkage between the eastern and western mountains and seas in the county, strengthen policy support for economically weak areas in the county, and guide more developed county production factors to accelerate the flow to weak counties." Yu Debiao said.
