Dongguan joined the GDP trillion city club, which has received widespread attention from the media at all levels. Today (February 11), the Central Broadcasting Network launched a series of reports on the first screen of the home page of the Central Broadcasting Network - "Double Ten Thousand" New Dongguan Special Report: Attack on the World Factory, starting from different dimensions such as manufacturing, science and technology, and cities, unlocking the "password" of Dongguan's high-quality development.
The first report focuses on "This is Dongguan", with "Taiping Handbag Factory" as the opening chapter, telling how Dongguan has been deeply cultivated step by step, forged ahead, and finally become a world-renowned world factory.
【Opening Remarks】
It is the only city in the country that is adjacent to the two first-tier cities, bordering Guangzhou in the northwest and Shenzhen in the south;
It is one of the important manufacturing bases of the Mascot "Ice Pier" of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games;
It is one of the 4 prefecture-level cities in the country without districts;
It is also one of the former "Four Little Tigers of Guangdong", and it is also a world-renowned "World Factory";
This is Dongguan, a new member of the "Domestic Trillion Club", and the third city in Guangdong with a population of more than 10 million, after Guangzhou and Shenzhen, known as the "City of Double Ten Thousand".
However, Dongguan's "Double Ten Thousand Road" is not easy. The 1997 financial crisis, the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic... Challenge after challenge, break through bottlenecks again and again.
The wind knows the grass, and the horsepower can be seen in the distance. From now on, the Central Radio and Television Corporation launched a series of reports to unlock the "code" of Dongguan's high-quality development from different dimensions of manufacturing, science and technology, and cities.
When you think of Dongguan, what is your first impression?
Relying on foreign capital to start, foreign trade dependence ranks first in the country, the proportion of foreign population is the first in the country, and the unique characteristics of "three foreign countries" make the "world factory" the most popular business card in Dongguan.
Looking back at Dongguan's "Double Ten Thousand Road", the manufacturing industry is undoubtedly an important observation dimension. From the "processing and manufacturing center" gradually upgraded to the "advanced manufacturing base", how did the "world factory" complete the attack step by step?
Label
In 1978, Hong Kong businessman Zhang Zimi's handbag products company was being pushed to the brink of closure by rising costs.
After some weighing, he set his sights on the Pearl River Delta, which is close to Hong Kong, has easy land and water transportation, and labor costs are relatively cheap. However, after several searches, the ideal place could not be found.
The turning point came on August 29 of that year, when Zhang Zimi went to Dongguan under the introduction of the Second Light Bureau of Guangdong Province to inspect the Taiping Garment Factory. Tang Zhiping, who was only 26 years old at the time, was impressed by this, "He wanted to test our ability, so he gave a black women's bag and asked if we could make the same product." ”
After only one overnight, the handbag was delivered to Zhang Zimi. He immediately decided to sign a five-year contract with the Dongguan County Second Light Bureau. The contract stipulates that dongguan county Taiping handbag factory will be established, and taiping garment factory will be responsible for processing handbags, and all products will be exported.
Taiping handbag factory production records. (Source: Dongguan Municipal Archives)
On September 15, 1978, the first incoming material processing plant in Chinese mainland - "Dongguan Taiping Handbag Factory" was officially put into operation.
During the contract period, accompanied by the production of a large number of handbags, the "Made in Dongguan" label went to Hong Kong, Macao and overseas for the first time, and laid the first brick for the "World Factory" after that.
The "butterfly" of history continues to flap its wings. Inspired by successful experience, a series of "three to one supplement" enterprises such as hardware factories, zipper factories, and printing factories have blossomed everywhere in Dongguan in less than 10 years, all over the streets and alleys.
Taiping handbag factory historical photos (source: Dongguan Municipal Archives)
Since then, Dongguan, an agricultural county with four seasons of fragrance, has not only opened the prelude to reform and opening up, embarked on the road of industrialization and urbanization, but also rooted the manufacturing industry in the blood of every step of its own development.
As one of only four "municipal towns" in the country, Dongguan has emerged in 32 town streets with "village ignition and household smoke", and it has not stopped there.
From Guangdong to the whole country, from the whole country to the world, soon, there will be greater challenges waiting for Dongguan.
Remove the label
The boom in manufacturing has brought earth-shaking changes to this former agricultural county.
From 1978 to 1985, Dongguan's economic growth rate averaged 12.8%; from 1986 to 1995, Dongguan greatly increased foreign investment by promoting rural industrialization and urban-rural integration, and the economic growth rate reached a staggering 19.6% during the period.
In October 1994, at the Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of China in Dongguan, the delegates unanimously agreed that after 10 years of efforts, Dongguan has basically achieved rural industrialization, but the existing labor-intensive industries can no longer meet the requirements of economic development.
Also at this meeting, Dongguan put forward the development strategy of "second industrial revolution", the connotation of which is to move from labor-intensive industry to technology-intensive industry, from "quantitative change" to "qualitative change". This is also the first time that Dongguan has put "transformation and upgrading" on the table.
Employees of the front line of Dongguan factory
Although the path is slightly rough, daring to try it brings good results.
"Dongguan traffic jam, global shortage of stock". In the more than ten years after 1996, Dongguan still maintained an economic growth rate of more than 19%, and a complete industrial system allowed 95% of the world's IT products to be matched in Dongguan.
However, the over-reliance on an export-oriented economy, coupled with the high proportion of manufacturing industries that lack core technologies, was exposed under a financial crisis in 2008.
In October 2008, Dongguan Hejun Toy Factory, one of Asia's largest toy foundries at the time, closed down, which was seen as the first case of China's real economy being blown down by the financial turmoil. In that year, 865 foreign-funded enterprises in Dongguan were shut down, 657 in 2009 and 585 in 2010.
In this economic examination, Dongguan has painstakingly considered the pain, re-examined the true connotation of "manufacturing city", and is determined to lead tens of thousands of manufacturing enterprises in its jurisdiction to tear off the untimely labels of "FOUNDRy" and "Low-end", and promote transformation and upgrading in an all-round and deep-level manner.
During the critical period, a practical "schedule of construction periods" was released. The "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for the Development of Advanced Manufacturing in Dongguan City" officially proposes to focus on the development of six advanced manufacturing industries during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period.
"Advanced manufacturing" has since become an important part of Dongguan's planning, which corresponds to the manufacturing logic behind the transformation and upgrading - the rapid development of modern manufacturing and high-tech industries, the private economy is also growing in the coordination of support, market forces have brought a complete industrial cluster to Dongguan, and what is needed now is to "light a fire" for it.
For Dongguan, "advanced manufacturing" has never been an empty term, it has breadth and depth.
"We must persist in taking advanced manufacturing as the 'root' and 'soul' of Dongguan's industrial market." As Xiao Yafei, secretary of the Dongguan Municipal Party Committee, said, this city that has risen in the reform and opening up has never forgotten its own way.
Rebuild the system
In 2014, Dongguan took the lead in launching the "machine substitution" plan in the country. A new era and a new look, a new manufacturing scene has opened here.
Five years later, a documentary "Manufacturing Times", which took the transformation of Dongguan's manufacturing industry as a case, was broadcast on the CCTV documentary channel, providing a reference for cities in urgent need of transformation and upgrading across the country. Among them, there is an impressive set of shots: while the assembly line workers repeat the operation, the robot produces and processes according to the program and efficiency.
Nowadays, the Dongguan electronic information industry cluster has reached a trillion-level scale, and the two strategic emerging industries of equipment manufacturing and new materials have also formed an industrial cluster of 100 billion yuan.
The significant increase in the proportion of advanced manufacturing, high-tech manufacturing, private economy and other advantageous industries in Dongguan has made manufacturing enterprises no longer fall into the embarrassing situation of "fighting alone" in the industrial chain.
Within a manufacturing enterprise in Dongguan
The most obvious change observed by the reporter is that under the leadership of the "big dragon head", the potential stocks in the "small field" have rapidly emerged.
According to the list of the third batch of specialized and special new "little giant" enterprises released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2021, Dongguan has added 45 new national-level "specialized special new" small giant enterprises, with a total of 79, ranking 5th in the country (excluding municipalities directly under the central government) and second in the province.
"Specialized and specialized" refers to those small and medium-sized enterprises that are mainly concentrated in the fields of new generation information technology, high-end manufacturing, new energy, specialization, and novelty.
They, often with a smaller manufacturing volume, occupy a large market share in the subdivision field, which is of great significance to the improvement and development of the manufacturing system, and the outside world calls them "small giants".
Dongguan automated production scene
Dongguan Kaige Precision Machinery Co., Ltd., established in 2005, focuses on the manufacture of steel mesh printing machines and other equipment, and the accuracy of products reaches one-fifth to one-eighth of that of hair, which is why it can maintain its global market share in the forefront.
"To be a key device, to take the fate into your own hands." Qiu Guoliang, chairman of the company, revealed that in 2021, the company's output value increased by 50%.
From the earliest integration, the key equipment is in the hands of others, to now become a "chain head" enterprise in the supply chain, the changes that have taken place in Kaige Precision Machinery are also the epitome of the development of Dongguan's advanced manufacturing industry.
In the 2022 Dongguan Government Work Report, "vigorously promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and advanced manufacturing, and strengthen the status of enterprise innovation as the main body" as the primary task in the future.
Here we can observe that Dongguan's transformation and development has clearly defined "walking on two legs", and the most important development springboard of the "trillion" city has also appeared.
Not far away, how did the lush lychee forest become a source of innovation? Is there the next "outlet" lurking in the seven strategic industrial emerging bases?
Regarding Dongguan, the story is far from over.
Material source: Wanxiang blossom, comprehensive Central Broadcasting Network