Beijing, 9 Sep (Zhongxin Net) -- China's megacities have ushered in expansion.
Suzhou was promoted to megacity
Suzhou recently issued a fact sheet pointing out that the National Bureau of Statistics has recently updated the national urban and rural (including development zone) classification code, and the statistical caliber of Suzhou urban area includes Suzhou Industrial Park, and the urban and rural code of its subordinate communities has been changed from the central area of the town (121) to the main urban area (111). The urban and rural classification codes of the communities under the jurisdiction of Loufeng Street, Shengpu Street, Weiting Street, Xietang Street and Jinjihu Street have been changed to: 111. This adjustment is not a zoning adjustment, but an adjustment of statistical caliber.
According to the statistical caliber of this adjustment, based on the permanent population data released by the seventh national census in 2020, the permanent population of Suzhou urban area is 512.51 million.
According to the Notice on Adjusting the Standards for City Size Classification issued by the State Council in 2014, the city scale division standard is based on the permanent population of urban areas as the statistical caliber, and divides cities into five categories and seven levels. Among them, cities with a permanent population of more than 500 million and less than 1000 million in urban areas are megacities; Cities with a permanent population of more than 1000 million in urban areas are considered megacities.
Suzhou has a permanent population of more than 500 million, which means that Suzhou ranks among the megacities.
What are the megacities?
In September 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics released the list of super-large and megacities in the country through Qiushi magazine based on the data of the 9 national census.
The above list shows that at that time, there were seven megacities in the country: Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Tianjin; There are 7 megacities: Wuhan, Dongguan, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Foshan, Nanjing, Shenyang, Qingdao, Jinan, Changsha, Harbin, Zhengzhou, Kunming and Dalian.
Therefore, after Suzhou ranks among the megacities, China's megacities will also expand.
What's the point of qualifying for a megacity?
Feng Wenmeng, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, told Zhongxin Financial Reporter that megacities are an important threshold for cities, and promotion to megacities can have a positive impact on urban development and enjoy more policy potential.
Taking the ongoing transformation of urban villages as an example, on July 2023, 7, the executive meeting of the State Council deliberated and adopted the Guiding Opinions on Actively and Steadily Promoting the Transformation of Urban Villages in Megacities. The meeting pointed out that actively and steadily implementing the transformation of urban villages in megacities is an important measure to improve people's livelihood, expand domestic demand, and promote high-quality urban development.
Whether it is a megacity or not is also related to the construction qualification of the metropolitan area. According to the Guiding Opinions on Cultivating and Developing Modern Metropolitan Circles issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2019, metropolitan areas are spatial forms of urbanization within urban agglomerations centered on megacities or large cities with strong radiation-driven functions, with one-hour commuting circles as the basic scope.
Data map: Aerial photo of Suzhou Taihu Lake National Wetland Park, blue sky and blue water ecological beauty. Photo by Lu Bo
In Feng Wenmeng's view, Suzhou's becoming a megacity is not only the result of population agglomeration in the context of regional population growth and decrease, but also will further enhance Suzhou's attractiveness to population talents. Suzhou's industrial development foundation is good, including high-end manufacturing, biomedicine, etc. have been carefully laid out, and industrial development has driven a large number of employment.
Feng Wenmeng said that becoming a megacity, urban population gathering will bring scale effects, public service allocation is more efficient, Suzhou public service level is higher, which makes residents live more comfortable, the environment more livable, life more secure, which is an important factor to attract population inflow and settle down for a long time. In addition, cities can aggregate more innovation elements, trigger a new round of innovation, and form a spiral effect, which will help promote the emergence of new models and the continuous upgrading of industries.
"Becoming a megacity means that the city is more attractive and the radiation driving capacity will be stronger." Feng Wenmeng believes that at the same time, there are not only benefits, but also challenges, including considering the problem of preventing the emergence of large city diseases, preventing the price of resource factors from soaring, and avoiding the weakening of relative competitive advantages.
Who will be the next megacity?
At present, Nanning has the potential to become the next megacity.
In recent years, the permanent population of Nanning has continued to increase. According to data released by the Nanning Municipal Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2022, the permanent population of Nanning was 889,17,2021, an increase of 5,89 over the end of <>, ranking first in the region.
Although Nanning's permanent population is close to 900 million, whether the permanent population in the urban area reaches 500 million is the indicator for deciding whether it is a megacity.
According to the "Chinese Census by County - 2020", the permanent population of Nanning is 456.75 million, which is not far from the threshold of a megacity of 500 million. (Zhongxin Finance)