Fight for the economy with all your might, who is leading?
01
The trillion-dollar city is one of the important windows to observe the economic trend of a large country.
Recently, various localities have released economic data for the first three quarters, some cities have gone all the way, and some places have retreated if they do not advance.
Among the 24 cities with a GDP of one trillion yuan in the mainland, only half of them outperformed the national average growth rate of 5.2%, of which Chengdu ranked first among the trillion cities with a real growth rate of 6.7% and a nominal growth rate of 7.9%.
It is worth mentioning that since the beginning of this year, Chengdu's economy has been "counterattacking" all the way, showing a trend of climbing: from 5.3% in the first quarter to 5.8% in the first half of the year, and then to 6.7% in the first three quarters, the whole year is expected to reach a new level.
Chengdu, how did it win the first city in terms of GDP growth rate of trillions of cities?
From the perspective of the national economy, in the first three quarters of this year, in the economic "troika", consumption supported the market, and final consumption expenditure contributed 83.2% to economic growth.
It can be seen that consumption-driven is replacing investment-driven and foreign trade-driven as the biggest support for economic growth, and Chengdu, which has the advantage of population size and super-large market, and is also the fulcrum of the domestic and international dual circulation strategy and the center of international consumption, is naturally the biggest beneficiary.
According to the data, in the first three quarters, Chengdu's total retail sales of consumer goods in the first three quarters reached 726.82 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.7%, 1.5 and 3.7 percentage points higher than that of the province and the country respectively.
Behind this, the retaliatory growth of consumption in the post-epidemic era is one of them, but the help brought by international events such as the Universiade and the World Science Fiction Convention cannot be ignored, and the comprehensive positioning of "three cities and three capitals" has made Chengdu stand on the commanding heights of "consumption-driven".
Along with consumption, there is also a strong momentum brought by the surging vitality of innovation and the bursting of market vitality.
On the one hand, since last year's re-mention of "manufacturing strong city", Chengdu has made efforts in advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries to seek a new track.
According to the data released by the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Statistics, in the first three quarters, the added value of Chengdu's above-scale industries increased by 7% year-on-year, while the five advanced manufacturing industries increased by 7.6% year-on-year, of which the growth rate of the pharmaceutical health industry and equipment manufacturing industry reached double digits.
Since the beginning of this year, a number of major industrial projects in Chengdu have been launched, providing greater impetus for new industrialization.
It is reported that Chengdu has laid out a total of 531 major industrial projects this year, involving a total investment of 1.12 trillion yuan and an annual planned investment of 185.4 billion yuan, covering many new tracks such as medicine and health, photovoltaic new energy, and aviation manufacturing.
Big projects drive big investment, and big investment drives big industries. With the start of construction and even the commissioning of these industrial projects, the economy can reach a higher level in the future.
On the other hand, the emergence of new tracks and the continuous improvement of the business environment have driven a large number of enterprises to pour into Chengdu, bringing strong market competition vitality.
According to the statistics released by the Chengdu Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, as of the end of September this year, the total number of business entities in the city was 3.8517 million, of which the total number of enterprises reached 1.5727 million, ranking second in the country, second only to Shenzhen.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been 478,000 newly registered market entities in Chengdu, with a net increase of 95.6% in tax-related market entities.
The increase or decrease of market entities represents confidence and expectations, and is also the embodiment of economic vitality.
This is not the first time that Chengdu's market players have experienced high growth.
From 2018 to the end of the third quarter of 2023, the number of market entities in Chengdu has increased from 2.3 million to 3.85 million, and the number of new market entities has exceeded 500,000 per year for five consecutive years, ranking first among sub-provincial cities in terms of increment.
There is quantity and quality. Among these market players, there are many leaders represented by specialized and new "little giants", individual champions in the manufacturing industry, listed companies, and Fortune 500 companies, and the number of Chengdu "little giant" enterprises, listed companies, and Fortune 500 companies all rank among the top ten in the country.
Chengdu has always known itself as a "city of opportunity", and the "voting with their feet" of a large number of market players vividly reflects this.
02
Fight the economy, fight is the business environment, rely on the main body of the market.
Since the beginning of this year, the war of "grabbing enterprises" has broken out again, and not only has Hong Kong rarely set up an office for introducing enterprises, but also openly stated that it will "grab people, enterprises, and capital" in the mainland.
Shanghai is the first time to go to the central and western regions to attract investment, and the first stop was selected in Chengdu, firing the first shot of "reverse investment", which shows the attractiveness of Chengdu.
In the mainland, all kinds of investment promotion conferences are emerging in an endless stream, from the Yangtze River Delta to the Greater Bay Area, from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.
In this new enterprise battle, whoever has a first-class sense of service, an international business environment, and a modern new industrial system will be able to walk in the forefront and achieve leadership.
A few days ago, Wenjiang District, Chengdu held an enterprise development conference to pay tribute to 100 outstanding enterprises, 100 outstanding entrepreneurs and 13 Wenjiang craftsmen with the highest courtesy, and thank them for their important contributions to promoting growth, transformation and innovation, stabilizing employment and improving people's livelihood.
In the name of a city to pay tribute to enterprises, with the opportunity of a city and enterprises to win-win, with the power of a city to escort enterprises, Wenjiang District issued these declarations, can be called an incisive summary of the "city-enterprise relationship" in the new era, but also the epitome and portrayal of the entire Chengdu business environment.
As a "demonstration area for the construction of China's international business environment" and "the area with the strongest sense of happiness for entrepreneurs", Wenjiang is at the forefront of the construction of business environment in Chengdu and even Sichuan.
The construction of Wenjiang's business environment, in local terms, is four "degrees" - scale, speed, temperature and strength.
In a word, the scale represents a tolerant market environment, the speed refers to the first-class government efficiency, the temperature represents the government's sense of service, and the strength involves policy support and fulfillment.
The "four degrees" proposed by Wen Jiang seems simple, but it hits the key to a new round of "enterprise war".
You must know that in the early stage of investment promotion, the competition was mostly resource endowment, land space, tax subsidies, and the "three axes" of giving money to land and resources, which can be described as invincible.
However, when the economy enters a new stage of high-quality development from high growth, the traditional extensive growth loses space, and the development of the pie is out of date, not only the land resources are becoming increasingly tight, but the space for tax subsidies is getting smaller and smaller, and special policies such as development zones and free trade zones are available but not sought, and the business environment has become a key winner.
Looking at the whole country, whether it is Shenzhen or Hangzhou, all regard the optimization of the business environment as the "No. 1 reform project", and the "number one" to take the lead in attracting investment has gradually become a trend.
As one of the country's first batch of pilot cities for business environment innovation, Shenzhen's business environment reform has entered version 6.0, realizing the leap from "running many times" to "running at most once" and then to "not running once", and has also opened the service change from "not looking for the mayor to find the market" to "I help enterprises find the market".
Although Chengdu is not a pilot for reform, Wenjiang District has taken the initiative to open the road of change with the courage to be the first.
As early as 2019, Wenjiang District took the creation of a first-class business environment as the "number one project", and in recent years, it has created a series of innovative explorations such as comprehensive window reform and reminder services, which have been replicated and promoted by the whole city and even the whole province.
Benchmarking is for reference, but also for transcendence. Today, Wenjiang District has taken the lead in many areas, especially the commitment of "three cans", which has pushed the construction of business environment to a new height:
As long as it is an effective policy measure in an advanced region, it can be referred to;
As long as it is not expressly prohibited by national laws and regulations, it can be released;
As long as it does not touch the red line, it can be given room for error.
"All three" refer to learning from advanced regions, "entering without prohibition", and inclusive and prudential supervision.
These commitments undoubtedly hit the current market psychology, allowing enterprises to avoid the troubles caused by vague rules, flexible law enforcement, and complex and changeable environments, stabilize expectations, and also arouse the upsurge of enterprises to dare to innovate.
It is worth mentioning that although it is located in the hinterland of the west, Wenjiang has never been limited to one city and one place, but has an open mind, comprehensively benchmarking against the developed regions in the east, and reshaping regional competitiveness with the business environment.
Since last year, Wenjiang District of Chengdu and Nansha District of Guangzhou have sung the "Tale of Two Cities" and actively integrated into the development of the Greater Bay Area. At the beginning of this year, it built the first "science and technology innovation enclave" in the Greater Bay Area, a precedent for the western region.
With the help of a first-class business environment, the main body of the Wenjiang market is growing stronger and stronger. According to the data, from 2018 to the end of 2022, the number of business entities in Wenjiang has increased from 69,000 to more than 120,000, and the number of "four-up" enterprises has jumped from 423 to 774.
Therefore, in terms of business environment, it is not without reason that Wenjiang District of Chengdu can compete with developed areas such as Tianhe District of Guangzhou and Nanshan District of Shenzhen, and has been awarded the "City (District) with the Strongest Sense of Happiness for Entrepreneurs" for three consecutive years.
Wenjiang is like this, and Chengdu is the same, it is not surprising that the "enterprise war" can lead all the way.
03
Fighting the economy is fighting the enterprise, and the biggest support for the enterprise lies in the industry.
In the past few years, the most eye-catching phenomenon of the country's regional economy is that first-class cities are returning to the real economy, from Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Suzhou to Chengdu, Wuhan, Hefei, all of which will take "strong industrial city", "strong manufacturing city" or "industrial city" as the main development strategy.
Behind this, a new round of technological revolution is in full swing, and the great power game has entered a deeper level of science and technology from trade, and whether it can master the independent and controllable industrial chain has become the key, which is the background of "industry first".
At the same time, the national level has repeatedly mentioned that "the focus of development is on the real economy", and the emergence of concepts such as "new quality productivity" and "new industrialization" has pointed out a new direction for industrial development.
The Third Plenary Session of the 14th Chengdu Municipal Party Committee held in July this year proposed to further implement the strategy of strengthening the city through manufacturing, focus on building "8+N" key industrial development clusters, and accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system supported by the real economy.
Subsequently, Wenjiang District proposed to build a "3+6" modern industrial system with "Wen as a well-founded", covering three landmark industries of medicine and health, green food, and modern urban agriculture, as well as six key industries and future industries of equipment manufacturing, electronic information, printing and textile, modern commerce, culture, sports and tourism, and digital economy.
The formation of any industrial system is not as big as possible, nor does it come out of thin air, nor does it rely on a paper document to achieve, but relies on location advantages, development heritage, industrial base, innovation resources, etc., to respond to the national strategy upward, to respond to the needs of enterprises downward, and to achieve advanced planning and layout.
Tianhe District, Guangzhou's largest economic region, is not known for its industry, but it has outstanding advantages in high-end service industry, and has finally formed four leading industrial systems based on financial industry, new generation information technology, high-end professional service industry, and modern commerce and trade industry.
Suzhou Industrial Park, established as an industrial park, has a profound foundation in biomedicine and nanotechnology industries, and finally laid out a "2+3" industrial system dominated by electronic information and machinery manufacturing, with biomedicine, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology as emerging industries.
It can be seen that every city, every district and county has its own unique positioning and comparative advantages, and only by finding the correct positioning and finding the right direction can we quickly step up and take off all the way.
Therefore, Wenjiang is not like some places focusing on popular tracks such as new energy vehicles, integrated circuits, and the metaverse, but is based on the present, resource-oriented and precise positioning, combined with the national development strategy and urban development direction, not only to consolidate the existing advantageous industries, but also to compete for future industries.
Industries such as medicine and health, green food, and urban agriculture are the traditional advantageous industries of Wenjiang, and now they are moving towards the level of 100 billion.
Among them, as the largest pillar industry, the pharmaceutical and health industry in Wenjiang District has gathered many leading enterprises such as WuXi AppTec, Kelun, Baili, Baiyu, etc., which are well-known in Chengdu and even the entire southwest region.
In contrast, emerging industries such as equipment manufacturing, electronic information, and digital economy are also moving towards higher goals with a starting point of 10 billion.
Although some industries are in their infancy, the gathering of innovative resources such as 4 double-first-class universities, 2 national key laboratories, 11 national R&D platforms, 195 provincial R&D platforms, and the existence of major platforms such as the Qingshuihe High-tech Industrial Corridor have opened up a huge imagination space for them.
8 double-first-class universities and construction disciplines in Sichuan
The rapid rise of the electronic information industry is quite representative.
Chengdu sits on the trillion-level electronic information industry, but Wenjiang is not a traditional industrial base, but with the help of the Qingshuihe high-tech industrial corridor brought by the industrial agglomeration effect, coupled with the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and other professional colleges and universities, the electronics industry from scratch, from zero to "forest", rapidly growing into a new economic growth point.
This is similar to the rise of the Wuhan Optics Valley area. Backed by well-known universities such as Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan National Research Center for Optoelectronics and other scientific research institutions, with the help of "integration of production, education and research", it has grown into the largest optoelectronics industry base in the country in just 30 years, and completed the historic transformation from a remote suburb to an urban science and technology center.
Wenjiang District is also on the smooth road of industrial transformation. According to the data, in Wenjiang District, more than 370 high-tech enterprises, 7 provincial-level gazelle enterprises, 107 provincial-level "specialized, special and new" enterprises, and 1 unicorn enterprise have gathered.
Most of these enterprises were founded and grew in Wenjiang, which can be described as "the enterprise and the city grow together", and it is also the embodiment of "win-win with the opportunity of a city".
Now, the "gold" Wenjiang is here, and the opportunity is coming. More and more enterprises are coming to seek the possibility of resonating with urban development in the wave of the era of modern industrial system construction.
This is true in Wenjiang, and the same is true in Chengdu. Today, Chengdu is cultivating two trillion-level industries represented by electronic information and equipment manufacturing, forming 10 100-billion-level industries such as integrated circuits, intelligent terminals, aerospace, and biomedicine, which may become the home of the future "enterprise war".
From "Wenjiang Opportunity" to "Chengdu Opportunity", from "Strong Industrial Zone" to "Strong Manufacturing City", a modern city with "innovation as the key and entity as the priority" is about to emerge.
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