How does the Yangtze River Delta lead the way?, Thinker | Ruan Qing: Promoting Chinese path to modernization | Yangtze River Delta | Construction

What achievements have been made in the integration work of the Yangtze River Delta over the past 5 years? What development opportunities does this national strategy contain? How can the Yangtze River Delta take the lead in promoting Chinese path to modernization? A few days ago, Ruan Qing, Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, delivered a speech at the Oriental Forum "Lecture Reading Series on Chinese path to modernization Theory".

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Yangtze River Delta integration becoming a national strategy. At present, our country has many important regional development strategies, at least seven of which have a key word. The key word for the development strategy of the Yangtze River Delta region is "high quality, integration". Integration is a relatively advanced stage in regional development with high requirements.Today, I would like to make some exchanges and share with you around the theme of "comprehensively promoting higher quality integration in the Yangtze River Delta and taking the lead in promoting Chinese path to modernization".

Time, location, and harmony of people

The integration of the Yangtze River Delta is a major national strategy and an important development opportunity. How to recognize this opportunity, I think it can be summarized in six words: "timing, favorable location, and harmonious people.".

In fact, even before this, he had already had a relatively complete and in-depth thinking.

After the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta has become a national strategy, corresponding supporting mechanisms have gradually formed, commonly known as the "three piece set". One is to establish a leadership group office in the country, two is to prepare a planning outline, and three is to form a batch of special plans and policy systems. In the Outline of the Yangtze River Delta Regional Integration Development Plan, the Yangtze River Delta has an important positioning of "one pole, three zones, and one highland". "One pole" refers to the strong and active growth pole of national development, "three zones" refer to the national high-quality development model zone, the first to achieve basic modernization leading zone, and the regional integration development demonstration zone. "One highland" refers to the new highland of reform and opening up in the new era. In particular, the "modernization leading area" clearly defines the responsibility of the Yangtze River Delta in the process of Chinese path to modernization.

The so-called "geographical advantage" refers to the six major urban agglomerations in the world, with Shanghai as the core, and the Yangtze River Delta being the sixth largest urban agglomeration. The modernization of the other five urban agglomerations has been completed, and the Yangtze River Delta is a rapidly emerging urban agglomeration. Through comparative analysis, the area, population, and urban agglomeration of the Yangtze River Delta are all extremely large on a global scale. We still have some gaps in per capita GDP, labor productivity, and other aspects, which also indicates that the Yangtze River Delta contains enormous development potential. According to the central requirements, the Yangtze River Delta needs to become a regional cluster for high-quality development. On a global scale, Japan, Germany, and the Yangtze River Delta have similar areas and economic scales. When the modernization of the Yangtze River Delta is completed, it is believed that it will make more outstanding contributions to national development than it does today.

The so-called "harmony of people" means that the integration of the Yangtze River Delta not only involves the top-level design of the central government, but also involves joint participation and efforts from the bottom up. Among them, it is important for Shanghai to play a leading role in driving development. In my opinion, being a good leader in Shanghai requires both leading and providing support, and it is the role of a leader and responsible person. In the practice of promoting the integration of the Yangtze River Delta in collaboration with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, Shanghai has put forward some ideas and ideas to lead, form consensus and take action. For example, Comrade Li Qiang, when serving as the Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, proposed "five key points", namely planning coordination, strategic coordination, thematic cooperation, market unity, and mechanism improvement. In my understanding, it can be said that it is the five main links guiding the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and also a methodology. At the same time, he also proposed the "bucket theory", which states that the three provinces and one city should not create small buckets, but each contribute their own strengths and reorganize a large bucket, which can bear more responsibilities for the country.

The advantages of "human harmony" in the integration of the Yangtze River Delta need to be organized and coordinated through a suitable mechanism. For example, two "sandwiches". A large "sandwich" with a main leadership symposium on top, a joint meeting in the middle, and an executive level below. The executive level is also a "sandwich", consisting of three parts: one is the joint office established by the development and reform commissions of various provinces and cities, and the other is the thematic group. Currently, there are 15 key thematic groups in the Yangtze River Delta, including industry, science and technology innovation, energy, environment, etc. Another one is the Yangtze River Delta Regional Cooperation Office, which was established in early 2018. Comrades from three provinces and one city have achieved joint centralized office work in Shanghai, marking a small step in the integrated cooperation mechanism and a big step in the process of Yangtze River Delta integration.

What achievements have been made in the integration work of the Yangtze River Delta

The three provinces and one city have a thorough understanding of the strategic intentions of the Party Central Committee, innovative methods and approaches, and the results of strategic implementation have been demonstrated. From the perspective of being a strong and active growth pole, the Yangtze River Delta contributes nearly 1/4 of the country's GDP with 1/26 of its territory and 1/6 of its population. There are currently 41 cities at or above the prefecture level in the Yangtze River Delta, of which 8 cities have entered the "trillion dollar city club", and Shanghai has exceeded 400 billion yuan. There are 11 cities in the Yangtze River Delta with a GDP scale of over 500 billion, with Changzhou at the forefront, estimated to exceed one trillion yuan this year, followed by Xuzhou, Wenzhou, and others. In my opinion, Chinese path to modernization is a process in which the Yangtze River Delta continues to release growth momentum and potential in the process of integration.

Specifically, the specific effectiveness of integrated practice is reflected in the following aspects:

The first area is technological innovation. International experience has shown that the key to a world-class city cluster is to have several world-class industrial clusters, and no city cluster can rise without external technological dependence. The goal of the three provinces and one city is to become a community of scientific and technological innovation. Our region is also a place where the country's scientific and technological innovation resources and talent resources are very abundant. There are four comprehensive science centers in the country, two of which are located in the Yangtze River Delta - Zhangjiang in Shanghai and Hefei in Anhui. The Yangtze River Delta has an annual R&D investment of over 800 billion yuan, accounting for 30% of the national total; Double first-class disciplines, highly cited expert papers, and the number of experts and scientists also account for 1/4 of the national total, indicating strong comprehensive scientific research capabilities. With the care and support of leaders from three provinces and one city, the Yangtze River Delta has established the Office for Building a Science and Technology Innovation Community. This office is jointly constructed and managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology and three provinces and one city. The competition in urban agglomerations facing the future is mainly driven by technological innovation, and behind technological innovation lies a region's organizational capacity for various innovative elements. How to organize these elements well? China has a new national system, and the United States also has one. DARPA under the US Department of Defense can effectively organize innovation elements. The Internet is an innovation project of DARPA, which has changed the world. There are many resources, subjects, and platforms for innovation in the Yangtze River Delta. For example, the Yangtze River Delta National Technology Innovation Center is a hub platform for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The center was officially unveiled and established in June 2021, headquartered in Zhangjiang Science City, Shanghai. It is an important platform jointly built by three provinces and one city. The center adheres to the concept of treating research and development as an industry and technology as a commodity. It has introduced a total of 301 project managers and jointly built 310 joint innovation centers with industry leading enterprises. For example, there are currently 25 major scientific and technological infrastructure projects under construction in the Yangtze River Delta. The Yangtze River Delta accounts for nearly 50% of the total number of awards in the three national science and technology awards, making it a "half of the country".

But it should also be noted that the innovation city cluster in the Yangtze River Delta has not yet become a fist. The World Intellectual Property Organization releases a global innovation index every year, listing a number of science and technology innovation city clusters. Currently, the Tokyo Yokohama cluster ranks first in the world, the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao cluster ranks second, and Beijing ranks third. Last year, Suzhou and Shanghai ranked sixth together for the first time. In the past, the Yangtze River Delta was ranked as a single city, and Shanghai entered eighth place two years ago. Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei have made rapid progress from a vertical perspective, but from a horizontal perspective, we have not yet come together well. Although we can cooperate with each other in projects, as a whole innovation cluster, we still need to form a joint force, strengthen scientific and technological cooperation and sharing between cities through institutional and policy innovation, and make the concentration of scientific and technological resources and innovation atmosphere in the Yangtze River Delta strong, in order to significantly enhance regional innovation activity and effectiveness.

Recently, the Yangtze River Delta Regional Cooperation Office has conducted some research in collaboration with relevant institutions. We feel that in the field of basic scientific research, the Yangtze River Delta can make a difference. Basic scientific research is divided into three categories: the first category is mission oriented, the second category is free exploration, and the third category is mainly focused on enterprise applications. Nowadays, basic scientific research is organized on a unit by unit basis in each province and city, and there are problems of multiple dispersed and low efficiency. We have made a preliminary suggestion. Regarding the second type of innovation, which is free exploration, can the Yangtze River Delta consider establishing a funding pool to increase investment, leveraging the strengths of various universities and research institutions, concentrating on forward-looking layout, and using independent laboratory leaders and other methods to organize basic scientific research forces on the platform of the Yangtze River Delta Science and Technology Innovation Community, so as to make basic scientific research solid, not only undertake more tasks for the country, but also provide underlying and common technical support for the Yangtze River Delta industry, so that the path of upgrading important industries can go faster and further.

The second major area is industrial development. World-class urban clusters often have world-class industrial clusters and first-class large enterprises and universities. We have also sorted out that the three leading industries in the Yangtze River Delta have a large share in the country, and their roles and positions are very obvious. The scale of integrated circuits accounts for 50-60% of the country's total, biopharmaceuticals account for one-third of the country's total, and artificial intelligence also accounts for one-third of the country's total. Regarding innovative drugs, Boston Company has provided us with data. From the perspective of global innovative drug research and development capital, the Yangtze River Delta has the highest and most active capital concentration on a global scale. There is another industrial cluster in the Yangtze River Delta that everyone may think of, which is the automotive industry. The automobile industry in the Yangtze River Delta currently produces over 7 million complete vehicles per year, accounting for 1/4 of the national total. Among them, the production of new energy vehicles accounts for 38% of the national total, and the scale of components is the largest in the country, with a production value accounting for 37% of the national total. From a global perspective, the automotive industry in the Yangtze River Delta has accumulated strong experience after three to four decades of reform, opening up, and innovation. The automotive industry in the Yangtze River Delta accounts for 8% of the world's total, and various representative enterprises, market shares, and industrial chain levels can also reach world-class levels. In addition, in the field of high-end equipment industry, such as large aircraft, high-end communication, large shield tunneling, nuclear energy equipment, etc., the Yangtze River Delta has strong comparative advantages. It is worth looking forward to building several world-class industrial clusters in the future.

We used to think that the main focus of regional cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta was to improve infrastructure and connectivity, which was the main battlefield.Of course, this does not mean that infrastructure is not important anymore. The Yangtze River Delta has entered the era of railways from the era of highways. Building a connected and convenient Yangtze River Delta is our important goal, and we must make every effort to do so. The country has also formulated a multi-level rail transit plan for the Yangtze River Delta region, which aims to increase the increment of mainline railways, suburban railways, and intercity railways in the Yangtze River Delta by 40% in the future. The Yangtze River Delta on the track will bring Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui closer to each other in space. In the future, we will often come and go in the Yangtze River Delta not by car but by subway, and many cities have the conditions for daily commuting. Railways are not only high-speed trains and urban subways, but also intercity railways, including suburban railways in major cities such as Shanghai. The future of people in the Yangtze River Delta should be like this: living in Shanghai, working in the Yangtze River Delta, or living in the Yangtze River Delta, working in Shanghai. These increasing commuting population will no longer be limited to a single city, but will live and work within the scope of the Yangtze River Delta. Based on the experience of constructing multi-level rail transit networks in international urban agglomerations, commuter circles are formed around mega cities and several major cities, which bear the responsibility of urban function spillover and radiation. In addition, there are ports and airports. The port throughput of the Yangtze River Delta accounts for nearly 40% of the country's total. Shanghai Port has ranked first in the world in container throughput for thirteen consecutive years, and Ningbo Zhoushan Port has also ranked first in cargo throughput for many consecutive years.

In terms of infrastructure construction, another aspect is the construction of the digital Yangtze River Delta. In recent years, the three provinces and one city have successively released local versions of "new infrastructure" plans, and the construction of 5G networks, cloud computing, and data centers has entered the "fast lane". In 2018 and 2021, we actively planned and coordinated with all parties. China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Tower Corporation signed memorandums of understanding with the governments of the four regions, investing over 500 billion yuan in new 5G infrastructure and industrial applications in the Yangtze River Delta. This is a sign that large central enterprises are optimistic about betting on the Yangtze River Delta. The "East Digital and West Computing" project, officially launched in 2022, aims to build a new computing power network system that integrates data centers, cloud computing, and big data, orderly guide the demand for computing power from the east to the west, optimize the layout of data center construction, and promote coordinated linkage between the east and the west. The country has launched the construction of national computing power hub nodes in eight regions, including Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu, Ningxia, etc., and has planned 10 national data center clusters, including two in the Yangtze River Delta, one in the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone, and the other in Wuhu, Anhui.

In the construction of a unified large market. From a political perspective, the integration of the Yangtze River Delta aims to promote and drive national development, while from an economic perspective, it aims to build a unified large market. There are also concepts and practices of integrated markets abroad, but the general understanding is relatively narrow, basically a cross regional labor market. In my opinion, economic integration should be rooted in the integration of the Yangtze River Delta market, and the commodity market, factor market, especially data, talent and other markets should be well maintained and constructed. In this large market, various market entities can achieve unobstructed flow of factors and efficient allocation across administrative boundaries, fully stimulating and releasing endogenous market forces. The integrated market of the Yangtze River Delta is an important component of the domestic market, and the construction of the market system can be summarized as the "Three Ones", namely one certificate, one ruler, and one warehouse. One certificate is that enterprises can apply for certificates and licenses in different locations in the Yangtze River Delta; A ruler refers to the relative unity of administrative penalty power and discretionary power; A database is a shared enterprise database that can facilitate cross regional collaborative supervision.

Another area is the green and beautiful Yangtze River Delta.At present, the average concentration of PM2.5 in the Yangtze River Delta region is 31 micrograms per cubic meter, and it has dropped to 25 micrograms per cubic meter in Shanghai. The five types of water in the Yangtze River Delta have been eliminated, and now we need to expand the proportion of water with three or more types. In terms of water environment protection, three provinces and one city are strengthening the joint prevention and control of transboundary water bodies, and jointly promoting a new round of comprehensive water environment management in the the Taihu Lake Lake basin. The Xin'an River Qiandao Lake Ecological Protection Compensation Pilot Zone jointly built by Zhejiang and Anhui provinces has become a national pilot field for ecological value realization. We will jointly promote the protection of the Yangtze River, increase pollution control from ships and ports, and jointly implement a ten-year fishing ban.

Finally, the practice of integrating the Yangtze River Delta should benefit the people and enable them to enjoy the benefits of integration. We need to build a harmonious and happy Yangtze River Delta. For example, 140 government service items have been processed through the Yangtze River Delta through one network, and 37 types of high-frequency electronic certificates such as driver's licenses, marriage certificates, and business licenses have been shared and recognized; The Yangtze River Delta has completed the legislation of the "One Card" for resident services of social security cards, and the application scenarios of tourism, travel, cultural experience, etc. have been continuously expanded. In recent years, the convenient sharing of public services in the Yangtze River Delta has accelerated. For example, direct settlement of outpatient expenses for cross provincial and cross regional medical treatment has been promoted. In 2018, Shanghai, together with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces, took the lead in exploring and forming experience and promoting it nationwide. As of the end of 2022, direct settlement of medical expenses for outpatient medical treatment in cross provincial medical treatment has covered more than 17000 medical institutions in all 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta, with a total settlement of more than 16 million people and medical expenses exceeding 4.6 billion yuan.

Next, how to take the path of integration

Looking ahead to the future, how should we take the path of integration? In summary, it is to fully stimulate endogenous driving forces and promote the deepening and implementation of the integrated national strategy in the Yangtze River Delta.

One is to implement the national planning outline and the "14th Five Year Plan" implementation plan well. This is the top-level design of the country, as well as the long-term management. We also need to implement the ongoing three-year action plan and initiate a new round of three-year action plan preparation work. At the same time, it is necessary to implement the annual plan and key issues well. Every time the main leaders hold a symposium, they will put forward a batch of work tasks that need to be promoted, and the Yangtze River Delta Regional Cooperation Office will summarize and clarify the division of labor among all parties to fully promote implementation.

The second is to build several key areas in the Yangtze River Delta well. We have an integrated demonstration zone for ecological green development in the Yangtze River Delta, mainly focused on institutional innovation. With the support of big business, exhibition, and transportation, Hongqiao Transportation Hub aims to become the central business district of the Yangtze River Delta in the future.

Thirdly, the cooperation mechanism in the Yangtze River Delta needs to be further improved. The Yangtze River Delta Regional Cooperation Office is a platform for connecting and serving various parties, as well as an operational hub for implementing the national planning outline. To continue to serve as the "shop assistant" for the integrated national strategy of the Yangtze River Delta. "Shop assistant" means to provide good service, be enthusiastic, professional, resilient, and have some emotions. Five years ago, I remember an article in the Liberation Daily describing the Yangtze River Delta Regional Cooperation Office as follows: "This place is not like a traditional government office, but rather like a startup company eagerly preparing for an IPO.". The national strategy is continuing, and our "startup company" has been on the road. We hope to receive everyone's support, joint attention, and participation in the integration work of the Yangtze River Delta.

Biography of Thinkers

Ruan Qing, Deputy Secretary and Deputy Director of the Party Group of the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, Executive Deputy Director of the Yangtze River Delta Regional Cooperation Office, and President of the Shanghai Development and Reform Research Institute.

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