Author: Li Xiuzhong
A new member has been added to the national metropolitan area.
The Chongqing metropolitan area has become the sixth national metropolitan area and the second trans-provincial metropolitan area after the Nanjing metropolitan area.
Recently, the Chongqing Municipal Government website announced the "Chongqing Metropolitan Area Development Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan").
The Chongqing metropolitan area consists of the central urban area of Chongqing's main metropolitan area and closely linked surrounding cities, including 21 main urban metropolitan areas in Chongqing and Guang'an City in Sichuan Province.
In 2020, the resident population is about 24.4 million, with a total area of 35,000 square kilometers.
The sixth national metropolitan area
In March this year, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, the relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission stated that this year, the cultivation of modern metropolitan areas will be accelerated, and a new batch of metropolitan area plans such as Chang-Zhu-Tan, Xi'an, and Chongqing will be introduced.
Prior to this, the Changzhutan and Xi'an metropolitan area plans have been introduced.
Yi Xiaoguang, dean of the Chongqing Institute of Comprehensive Economics, told Yicai that the "Planning" is a cross-provincial metropolitan area plan compiled in accordance with the "Outline for the Construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle".
The construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle is to rely on the two cores of Chongqing and Chengdu to develop the metropolitan area and link the surrounding areas.
The Outline of the Construction Planning of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle clearly states that a modern metropolitan circle should be cultivated around the main city of Chongqing and Chengdu, and the cities and districts and counties around the central city will be accelerated.
In November last year, the "Chengdu Metropolitan Area Development Plan" was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.
In May 2020, on the basis of the original 9 districts of the main city, Chongqing expanded 12 districts in western Chongqing into new districts of the main city, and the metropolitan area of the main city increased to 21 districts.
The scope of this metropolitan area is based on the addition of Guang'an City in Sichuan Province.
The "Planning" proposes to support Guang'an City to accelerate the development of the same city with the central city of Chongqing, and strive to build the northern sub-center of the Chongqing metropolitan area.
Yi Xiaoguang said that central urban areas and metropolitan areas play an important role in regional economic growth.
The expansion of the main urban area is implemented from the perspective of supporting the construction of the twin-city economic circle and enhancing the comprehensive carrying capacity of national central cities.
A notable feature of the Chongqing metropolitan area planning is that it is cross-provincial and includes Guang'an in Sichuan.
In the "Planning", 56 Guang'an matters are supported by "calling".
The Standing Committee of Guang'an Municipal Committee (expanded) believes that the "Planning" makes Guang'an the only prefecture-level city in the country that is included in the inter-provincial metropolitan area. It is a major event in the development of Guang'an.
Therefore, the Chongqing metropolitan area has become the second metropolitan area spanning provincial-level administrative regions after the Nanjing metropolitan area.
Yi Xiaoguang said that cross-administrative cooperation is the difficulty in promoting the construction and development of the economic zone. An important part of incorporating Guang'an into the Chongqing metropolitan area is to promote Sichuan-Chongqing cooperation.
At present, the Sichuan-Chongqing Gaozhu New District, which is cooperating with Guang'an Linshui and Chongqing Yubei, has made good progress in management, benefit distribution, infrastructure and public service construction.
The "Planning" proposes to focus on the functional platform of inter-provincial and municipal regional cooperation, take the lead in exploring the reform of moderate separation of economic zones and administrative regions, and promote substantial breakthroughs in planning overall planning, policy coordination, collaborative innovation, co-construction and sharing, etc. The experience that can be replicated and generalized can accelerate the formation of system integration and the comprehensive effect of "point to surface".
Metropolitan area accelerates cultivation
In 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Guiding Opinions on Cultivating and Developing Modern Metropolitan Circles", which clearly proposed to cultivate and develop a number of modern metropolitan circles, form new advantages in regional competition, and provide important support for the high-quality development of urban agglomerations and economic transformation and upgrading.
By 2035, the pattern of modern metropolitan areas will become more mature, forming several metropolitan areas with global influence.
Since last year, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Chengdu, Changzhutan, Xi'an and other metropolitan areas have been approved one after another, and the Chongqing metropolitan area is the sixth national-level metropolitan area.
There are 2 in the central and eastern regions of these 6 metropolitan areas, 3 in the western region, and 1 in the central region. In addition, some metropolitan area plans are under planning.
Among them, the economic aggregate of Nanjing metropolitan area is the largest, and the per capita GDP is also the highest.
In 2019, the per capita GDP reached 113,000 yuan, close to the level of high-income countries.
Statistics released by the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Statistics show that in 2021, the 10 areas in the Nanjing metropolitan area will achieve a total regional GDP of 4,666.568 billion yuan, and the total economic volume will expand by 491.5 billion yuan over the previous year.
The economic aggregates of both the Chengdu metropolitan area and the Chongqing metropolitan area exceed 2 trillion yuan.
Statistics from the Sichuan Bureau of Statistics show that in 2021, the Chengdu Metropolitan Area will achieve a GDP of about 2.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 33.8% of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, an increase of 0.1 percentage points over the previous year.
The per capita GDP has reached the level of 80,000 yuan and reached 13,000 US dollars, reaching the level of middle-income regions in the world.
The metropolitan areas of Fuzhou, Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xi'an belong to the trillion-level metropolitan area.
The total economic output of the Chang-Zhu-Tan metropolitan area in 2021 will be 1.79 trillion yuan, the 2020 GDP of the Fuzhou metropolitan area will be about 1.5 trillion yuan, and the 2020 regional GDP of the Xi’an metropolitan area will be about 1.3 trillion yuan.
These metropolitan areas are located in different regions, with different basic economic conditions and different degrees of internal integration and cooperation.
Some regional cooperation has a history of many years, and a good coordination and cooperation mechanism has been formed, while the internal relationship of some metropolitan circles still needs to be further rationalized.
Nanjing Metropolitan Area is the earliest cross-provincial metropolitan area in my country.
As early as 1986, the Nanjing Regional Economic Coordination Council was established.
In December 2002, the Jiangsu Provincial Government approved the Nanjing Metropolitan Area Planning.
Later, documents such as the Yangtze River Delta Regional Planning, the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration Planning and the Yangtze River Delta Integrated Development Planning Outline all clearly required to speed up the construction of the Nanjing metropolitan area.
The Chengdu metropolitan area was developed on the basis of Sichuan's promotion of the integration of Chengde and Meizi.
In recent years, the integration of Chengde eyebrows has made significant progress.
On August 23, the feasibility study report of the Chengdu-Meishan line of the urban (suburban) railway was approved by the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, marking that the Chengmei Line project will enter the stage of full-scale construction.
The construction of the Xi'an metropolitan area focuses on promoting the integration of Xi'an and Xianyang. The goal is that by 2025, the high-quality development of the metropolitan area will take solid steps, the radiation and driving ability of Xi'an's national central city will be further improved, and the functions of non-provincial capital will be relieved in an orderly manner. Xi'an— Substantial progress has been made in the integrated development of Xianyang.
In addition to these six metropolitan areas, there are also some metropolitan areas that may be released one after another in the future.
For example, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting High-Quality Development of the Central Region in the New Era" issued last year proposed to support the construction of metropolitan areas such as Wuhan, Changsha-Zhuzhou-Tanzhou, Zhengzhou, Hefei and the urban agglomeration in central Shanxi, and cultivate and develop the Nanchang metropolitan area.
Different from the list of tasks listed in the previous two years, the "Key Tasks for New Urbanization and Urban-Rural Integration Development in 2022" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission did not name specific metropolitan areas, but proposed to cultivate and develop modern metropolitan areas.
Improve the urbanization promotion mechanism of metropolitan circles, which is coordinated at the provincial level, led by central cities, and coordinated by surrounding cities.