The competition of seven cities including Mianyang, Deyang, Leshan, Yibin, Luzhou, Nanchong and Dazhou to become the economic sub-center of Sichuan province has finally settled.
Sichuan has brought the title of "sub-center" to several of these cities.
On May 27, the 12th Sichuan Provincial Party Congress opened.
The report of the party congress clearly stated for the first time that Mianyang should be supported to give full play to the advantages of science and technology city and accelerate the construction of the sub-center of the provincial economy in northern Sichuan.
7 Cities Competition "Sub-Center"
In 2018, the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Sichuan Provincial Party Committee proposed to build a new pattern of regional development with "one cadre, multiple branches, and five districts coordinated", and to build the province's economic sub-center city.
Seven regional central cities, including Mianyang, Deyang, Leshan, Yibin, Luzhou, Nanchong, and Dazhou, have been identified, and qualified regional central cities will be encouraged and supported to strive to become provincial economic sub-centers.
Ding Renzhong, deputy head of the macroeconomic group of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government Decision-making Advisory Committee, told Yicai that the last Sichuan Provincial Party Committee proposed to build a provincial economic sub-center, which was a reference to the practices of other provinces, and also based on Sichuan The actual situation in the province must do so.
At that time, in addition to Chengdu, Mianyang was the only city in Sichuan Province with a GDP that just exceeded 200 billion yuan.
In 2017, the GDP of Sichuan reached 3,698.02 billion yuan, and its economic volume ranked sixth in the country.
However, the development is not balanced. There are 8 cities in the province with a GDP exceeding 150 billion yuan. In addition to the provincial capital cities, only Mianyang exceeds 200 billion yuan, while Deyang, Yibin, Nanchong, Dazhou, Luzhou and Leshan are still 150-200 billion yuan. between yuan.
Ding Renzhong said that at that time, it was proposed to create an economic sub-center, and Sichuan identified 7 regional central cities, equivalent to 7 candidate cities for economic sub-centers, and the standard of 300 billion-500 billion provincial economic sub-centers.
After this was proposed, all cities took the lead.
Peng Qinghua, secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee at the time, said that all localities should effectively change the development mode, optimize the economic structure, improve the quality and efficiency of development, continuously enhance the comprehensive strength, and stand out on the basis of solid performance.
I believe that after several years of hard work, several cities with an economic aggregate of about 300 billion yuan to 500 billion yuan will be formed. At that time, we will beat gongs and drums to give you the crown of "sub-center".
This has actually formed a competition among the seven cities to create economic sub-centers, and this competition has a strong competitive atmosphere and obvious results. Especially in the past few years, Yibin has emerged as a new force, and the competition between Yibin and Mianyang is the most obvious.
Since 2018, Yibin’s GDP growth rate has maintained the first place in Sichuan Province for four consecutive years, with an increase of 9.2%, 8.8%, 4.6% and 8.9% respectively from 2018 to 2021.
Mianyang is not to be outdone. From 2018 to 2021, Mianyang's GDP will increase by 9%, 8.1%, 4.4% and 8.7% respectively.
The increase in speed has accelerated the growth of Yibin's total volume. In 2018, there was still a gap of nearly 20 billion compared with Deyang, the third place. However, in 2019, Yibin surpassed Deyang in terms of total volume and jumped to the third place.
In 2020, Mianyang took the lead in breaking the 300 billion yuan threshold; in 2021, Yibin followed closely and also crossed the 300 billion yuan threshold.
On the eve of this party congress, the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Statistics released a series of analyses of Sichuan's economic and social development achievements in the past five years.
The data shows that the economic growth rate of the South Sichuan Economic Zone, where Yibin and Luzhou are located, leads the five districts. From 2017 to 2021, the regional GDP will increase by 7.5% annually, which is 0.4 percentage points higher than the provincial average, and the growth rate ranks first among the five districts.
Ding Renzhong said that the report of this party congress clarified the provincial economic sub-centers, and formed 3 provincial economic sub-centers in 7 cities.
Of course, there are differences. The wording of the three sub-centers is different. Mianyang is "built", Yibin and Luzhou are "construction", and Nanchong and Dazhou are "cultivation".
New goals after "listing"
The establishment of the provincial economic sub-center in the report of the Sichuan Party Congress this time can be said to be an "awarding award" for the results of the 7-city competition in the past few years. At the same time, it is also a new policy measure for the coordinated regional development of Sichuan Province.
Ding Renzhong said that there have been several changes at present: the GDP of Mianyang and Yibin has exceeded 300 billion yuan; whether from the perspective of regional development, or from the perspective of stabilizing growth and promoting the economy, the pace of construction of the sub-center must be accelerated, although Sichuan Its economic aggregate ranks sixth in the country, but it faces great pressure to catch up.
As the first province to put forward the concept of sub-center, Hubei clearly defined Xiangyang and Yichang as provincial sub-center cities.
In recent years, Henan has vigorously promoted the construction of Luoyang sub-center, and last year Nanyang was added as a sub-center.
Moreover, more and more provinces are also breaking the dominance of the provincial capital and planning to build a provincial economic sub-center. For example, Anhui has identified Wuhu as a sub-center, and Shaanxi has built Yulin as a new growth pole.
At the same time as the competition in the provincial capital, the competition between the provincial economic sub-center or the second largest city is gradually emerging.
The GDP of Luoyang in Henan, Xiangyang and Yichang in Hubei, and Yulin in Shaanxi all exceeded 500 billion yuan; Yueyang and Changde in Hunan, Nanyang in Henan, Wuhu in Anhui, Ganzhou in Jiangxi, and Zunyi in Guizhou also exceeded 400 billion yuan.
From a national perspective, there is a clear gap between the economic volume of the provincial economic sub-center in Sichuan and the second and third cities in other provinces.
In 2021, the GDP of Mianyang and Yibin will be 335.029 billion yuan and 314.808 billion yuan respectively.
There is a gap with Henan and Hubei in the middle, and even lower than the neighboring Yulin in Shaanxi and Zunyi in Guizhou.
Not only that, from the perspective of the situation in the province, the three provincial economic sub-centers in Sichuan are still under great pressure.
Statistics from the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Statistics show that in 2021, Chengdu's total economic output will reach 1,991.70 billion yuan, accounting for 37.0% of the province's total, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from 2016.
The permanent resident population exceeds 20 million, ranking among the ranks of megacities; the per capita GDP reaches 14,667 US dollars, achieving a historic leap from the middle to high income level to the high income level.
According to the seventh national census data, from 2010 to 2020, among the 21 cities and prefectures in the province, only Chengdu, Mianyang and Liangshan accounted for an increase in the province's population, while the other 18 cities and prefectures all declined.
Among them, the proportion of Nanchong, which ranks second in the province in terms of total population, has dropped from 7.81% in 2010 to 6.7%.
This shows the accelerated flow of urban population in Sichuan Province to the provincial capital.
In this context, Sichuan has clarified these three provincial economic sub-centers, and is the "group" provincial economic sub-center.
Ding Renzhong said that the total economic volume of the three provincial economic sub-centers has exceeded 300 billion yuan, and the next goal is to break through 500 billion yuan.
At the same time, the three sub-centers are distributed in the three regions of northern Sichuan, southern Sichuan and northeastern Sichuan, and will become the growth leaders of the three economic zones.
In recent years, Sichuan has also stepped up its support for these sub-center cities.
For example, in 2020, the province will set up four new provincial-level new districts, namely Yibin Sanjiang New District, Chengdu Eastern New District, Nanchong Linjiang New District and Mianyang Science and Technology City New District.
One of the reasons for the establishment of provincial-level new districts is to use the provincial-level new districts as a starting point to accelerate development and strive to create a sub-central city of the province's economy.
Not only that, in January this year, the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee decided that Cao Lijun, the then vice governor of Sichuan Province, would also serve as the secretary of the Mianyang Municipal Party Committee.
The high position of secretary of the Mianyang Municipal Party Committee shows that Sichuan attaches great importance to the urban development of Mianyang.
Chen Yao, vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Association of Regional Economics, said in an interview with China Business News that the cultivation of provincial sub-center cities is more about policy guidance, guiding provincial capital cities to relieve non-core functions and transfer some provincial capital resources.
By attracting external forces through policies, such as strengthening infrastructure construction to form a second transportation hub, and building regional medical centers in the field of public services, these cities are expected to form some special functions.