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In 2024, China's economy will get off to a steady start, with steady growth and high-quality development advancing steadily. In the new era, China's economy has shifted to a stage of high-quality development. Not only have traditional advantages such as a large economy and a complete range of manufacturing industries been further consolidated, but new advantages have also been gathered to inject new momentum into economic development.
In order to allow readers at home and abroad to better understand the Chinese economy, this newspaper will launch a series of reports on "Understanding the New Advantages of China's Economy" starting today. Through real stories, data interpretation and authoritative analysis, it will show the continued upward momentum of China's economy.
"Night" is one of the best angles to observe the economic activity of a city.
Judging from the nighttime remote sensing images, on the map of China, eye-catching areas with bright lights emerge one after another. They are the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area... The bright lights from the perspective of space bear witness to Chinese cities. development of.
Today, China has the largest number of large cities and urban population in the world, and the agglomeration of urban agglomerations is accumulating new strength for China's economic development.
New power source for economic development
On Lingdingyang, amid the roar, the construction of various projects of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor Project entered the sprint period for traffic opening. After completion, the drive from Zhongshan, Guangdong to Shenzhen will be shortened to less than half an hour, making the ideal of a "one-hour living circle" in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area a reality.
To the north, in the Yangtze River Delta region, new energy vehicle upstream and downstream companies from chip software, power batteries, motor electronic controls to integrated die-casting manufacturing live side by side, and one OEM can supply all parts within a four-hour drive.
Continuing to move north, JORDAN's world's largest flagship store is located in Taikoo Li, Sanlitun, Beijing. The 2024 Tianjin Fashion Week is getting ready. Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei are working together to create a consumer feast, and the market is full of new ideas.
With smooth transportation, industrial agglomeration, and new consumption trends, China's numerous large cities and urban agglomerations are becoming the carrier of China's economic vitality.
Looking at numbers, China has the largest number of large cities and urban populations in the world. By the end of 2023, China's urban permanent population will be approximately 933 million, and the urbanization rate will reach 66.16%. Currently, there are 10 megacities in China with a permanent population of over 10 million. World Bank data shows that the proportion of China's urban agglomerations with a population of more than 1 million in the total population continues to rise, and the number of people gathered has reached the first place in the world.
Looking at quality, data shows that more than 80% of global GDP is contributed by cities. Take the Yangtze River Delta region as an example. With less than 4% of its land area, it has created nearly a quarter of China's total economic output. Some experts' research on Chinese cities found that, with other conditions remaining unchanged, a 1 percentage point increase in population density corresponds to a constant price GDP growth of 0.82%.
"The large number of large cities and urban agglomerations is becoming a new advantage for China's economic development." Lu Ming, executive director of the China Development Institute at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that in the context of the weakening of traditional economic growth momentum, economic growth must rely on production efficiency The agglomeration of large-scale populations and industries in metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations is conducive to promoting innovation, improving resource allocation efficiency, and becoming a new source of power for economic development.
Alain Berto, a professor at New York University who once served as chief urban planner of the World Bank, believes that China's unprecedented large-scale urban agglomerations have the potential to usher in a new era of high productivity and creativity.
A cluster of industry and innovation
On March 21, Panasonic, a Fortune 500 company, signed another new electronic materials project and settled in Suzhou, Jiangsu. According to the relevant person in charge of Panasonic Group, in the past three years, Panasonic has increased investment and established 18 new bases in China, basically distributed in urban agglomerations such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
What is the charm of China’s urban agglomerations?
"In global comparison, each of China's urban agglomerations is equivalent to the size of a big country. For example, the area of the Yangtze River Delta is close to that of Japan, and its population is about twice that of Japan." Lu Ming said, this means that some modern Industry, a whole industrial chain layout can be formed within a city agglomeration in China. For other countries, links that require transnational trade to support can be completed more efficiently.
Today, in the Pearl River Delta, a smartphone can assemble 95% of the parts in one hour; in Hunan, a cup of coffee can assemble tens of thousands of parts for an electric locomotive... Many of China's industries are among the best in the world, " The integrated advantages of high-precision and advanced products are constantly growing, relying on cities and urban agglomerations.
Urban agglomerations are industrial clusters and innovation clusters. In recent years, a number of multinational companies have set up R&D centers in China, choosing metropolitan areas located in the centers of urban agglomerations. Not long ago, AstraZeneca announced that Shanghai has become its fifth global strategic center, Apple has made it clear that it will set up a new applied research laboratory in Shenzhen this year, and Beijing has identified a new batch of foreign-funded R&D centers... This is exactly where China's metropolises are active in innovation. Portrait.
The "Global Innovation Center Index" report released by the authoritative academic journal "Nature" in December last year showed that Beijing ranked third in the global innovation center index, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area surpassed the Tokyo Bay Area for the first time to rank sixth. The innovation capabilities of Chinese cities have been significantly improved, which has also provided new impetus for global development.
Population will continue to migrate to urban agglomerations
Should you stay and work in the San Francisco Bay Area or return to China? Last year, Chinese young man Chao Hanqing received his PhD in the United States and chose the latter.
"My research focuses on the field of medical AI. China is more tolerant and open in this direction. Medical institutions and medical staff are willing to embrace AI, which makes me more confident." Chao Hanqing is now a member of the Medical AI Laboratory of DAMO Academy. An algorithm expert, he found that big cities like Hangzhou in China are inclusive of innovation and have more application scenarios for new technologies, giving scientific research the ground to create more social value.
"More and more students around me choose to return to China." Chao Hanqing said that becoming the first batch of postdoctoral fellows at DAMO Academy will also receive a million yuan subsidy for coming to Hangzhou. Domestic large cities are becoming more and more livable and workable, and with the support of talent policies, their attractiveness is becoming stronger and stronger. Market agency data shows that the talent attraction of big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen ranks among the top in the country, with more than 60% of talents flowing to the five major urban agglomerations of the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Chengdu-Chongqing.
According to data from the United Nations and the World Bank, the average urbanization rate in high-income countries has reached more than 80%. As a comparison, China's urbanization has great development potential in terms of both speed and quality.
The growth of urban population will not only drive the growth of consumption, but also drive the demand for investment in urban infrastructure, public service facilities and other aspects. According to estimates, every 1 percentage point increase in China's urbanization rate will directly drive a 3.5% increase in per capita capital stock, which is approximately 6.6 trillion yuan in new investment demand. It is also estimated that if the migrant population in urban and rural areas can receive equal public services, China's consumer demand can increase by nearly 30%.
"The development of central cities will have a comprehensive impact on production, consumption and the spatial pattern of urban agglomerations. China's large number of large cities and urban agglomerations also benefit from China's huge population, economic modernization and other factors." Lu Ming said, In the future, the population will continue to concentrate in metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations, injecting continuous vitality into economic development. (Our reporter Li Jie)
"People's Daily Overseas Edition" (Page 01, March 30, 2024)