The central and western regions want to develop non-provincial capital cities. Which cities have opportunities?
Recently, the news that "the world's second and domestic longest ring line subway started construction in Wuhan" has once again set off a hot discussion on the Internet about "one city dominating the city".
A reporter from China Business News noted that “one city dominates” is not unique to Wuhan. When the era of a strong provincial capital is coming, the central, western and northeastern provinces are strengthening the construction of provincial capitals.
At the same time, the development of non-provincial capital cities and the promotion of regional economic development in a more balanced and coordinated direction have also become consensus in many places.
"One city dominates" Wuhan?
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei Province. It is not only the geographic center of China, but also an important industrial base, science and education base and comprehensive transportation hub in the country. It is also the only sub-provincial city in the central region.
In October 2016, the "Outline of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Development Plan" issued by the CPC Central Committee listed Wuhan as a mega city.
The National Development and Reform Commission clearly requires Wuhan to accelerate its establishment of a national central city supported by the four major functions of a national economic center, a high-level scientific and technological innovation center, a business and logistics center and an international exchange center.
Why is Wuhan the only city in Hubei?
In 2019, Wuhan’s GDP was 1,622.321 billion yuan, accounting for more than 1/3 of the total economy of Hubei Province (4582.8 billion yuan); while the GDP of the other four prefecture-level cities in Hubei Province (Xiangyang City 483.7 billion, Yichang City 456.2 billion, Jingzhou city 233.7 billion, Huanggang city 228.4 billion) add up to 14020 million. Wuhan is more than 300 billion more than the sum of the other four places, which is equivalent to one more city than Weihai, Shandong. Its strength is that of other cities in Hubei Province. Unshakable.
"Whether Wuhan is really dominating, it depends on who is compared." According to Qin Zunwen, a member of the Hubei Provincial Government’s advisory committee and a researcher at the Hubei Academy of Social Sciences, it should be viewed on a national scale, especially with Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. In comparison, Wuhan is "not very big, nor very strong."
Qin Zunwen told CBN reporters that insufficient, uncoordinated, and inadequate development is still the biggest reality in Hubei.
To solve this problem, it is not to slow down the pace of Wuhan's development, but to make other cities in the province such as Xiangyang and Yichang develop faster.
Hubei Provincial Party Committee Secretary Ying Yong pointed out at the Eighth Plenary Session of the 11th Hubei Provincial Party Committee held recently that Wuhan is to Hubei and Shanghai is to the Yangtze River Delta.
In the next five years, Hubei will clearly support Wuhan to become bigger and stronger, and give full play to Wuhan's leading and radiating role as a national central city and a core city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
The top 10 provincial capital cities exceed 30%
In fact, "One city dominates" is not unique to Wuhan.
A reporter from China Business News found that Sichuan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shaanxi, Ningxia and other central and western provinces and northeastern regions all have the phenomenon of “one city dominating” the capital cities.
Such as Yinchuan and Changchun.
In 2019, the GDP of Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, was 189.7 billion yuan, accounting for more than half of the province, reaching 50.6%; the GDP of Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, was 590.4 billion yuan, accounting for 50.3% of the province.
The "dominance" of these two places is more serious than that of Wuhan.
In addition, Xining, Harbin, Chengdu, Lhasa, Xi'an, Wuhan, Lanzhou, Haikou and other eight capital cities have their primacy degree (that is, the proportion of the first city in the province’s economy) also exceeds 30%.
"The provincial capital, one city dominates, has a certain universality in my country's central and western regions and northeastern regions." Professor Chen Bo of the School of Economics at Huazhong University of Science and Technology pointed out.
In an interview with a reporter from China Business News, Chen Bo said that these powerful provincial capital cities are indeed absorbing the best resources in the province for development. At the same time, they include traffic congestion, high housing prices, resource shortages, and uneven regional development. It is also bothering these powerful provincial capital cities.
But I have to admit that it is they who retain more high-quality resources for their provinces.
Chen Bo said that if a province does not have a city that can rival the developed coastal areas, it cannot serve the purpose of attracting investment and attracting people, cannot provide more efficient public products, and cannot benefit more from public governance. Other "little brothers" in the province "It will only become poorer, and it will not be able to lead the rise of the entire provincial economy.
Qin Zunwen also believes that the strength of the central city is an important indicator of the economic development of a region.
Without the strong resource absorption and agglomeration capacity of central cities and the leading role of radiation, it is difficult for the entire region to develop rapidly.
Development of non-provincial capital cities in the Midwest
But the disadvantages of "one city dominates" are also obvious.
Ye Qing, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC of Hubei Province, who has long called for "Hubei to let Xiangyang and Yichang play a greater role", told the CBN reporter that conditions in the central and western regions should consciously cultivate multiple central cities to avoid "one city alone". The disadvantage of "big".
Ye Qing said that in coastal areas, non-provincial capital cities are generally larger in economic scale than provincial capital cities.
For example, Shenzhen’s GDP is greater than Guangzhou, Quanzhou is greater than Fuzhou, Suzhou is greater than Nanjing, and Dalian is greater than Shenyang.
The central and western regions should also develop the second and third members of a province without affecting the development of provincial capital cities.
Recently, the central and western regions also issued a signal of "development of non-provincial capital cities" when formulating the "14th Five-Year Plan".
Sichuan Province, a strong provincial capital with distinctive characteristics, proposed that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, to promote the development of the province’s backbone from Chengdu to the Chengdu metropolitan area, and to enhance the new energy of polar nuclear, it is necessary to develop in the Chengdu Economic Circle, South Sichuan and Northeast Sichuan Economic Zone respectively Form the provincial economic deputy center.
In formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan, Hubei also mentioned that it is necessary to give full play to the leading role of Wuhan's radiation, drive the Wuhan city circle, link the "Xiang Ten Sui Shen" city group and "Yi Jing Jing En" city group to form the overall development of Hubei.
Ye Qing said that compared with the previous strategy of "one master, two assistants", Hubei's new strategy of "one circle, two groups" first proposed the concept of Yichang and Xiangyang urban agglomerations, which is an improvement.
"I think the Yichang urban agglomeration should cover Jingzhou, Enshi, and Shennongjia, and the Xiangyang urban agglomeration should cover Jingmen, Shiyan, and Suizhou. Such a setting can better reflect the development needs of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Han River Economic Belt." Ye Qing said.
(Zhou Fang)