Every reporter: Wu Linjing Every editor: Liu Yanmei
Image source: photo.com_501687643
On December 20, Guangdong released the plan for five metropolitan areas in one go, namely Guangzhou metropolitan area, Shenzhen metropolitan area, Pearl River Estuary West Bank metropolitan area, Shanchaojie metropolitan area, and Zhanmao metropolitan area.
The imbalance between urban and rural development is the biggest shortcoming of Guangdong's high-quality development. The purpose of cultivating and developing the five major metropolitan areas is to comply with the trend of industrial upgrading, population flow and spatial evolution, enhance the development synergy of large, medium and small cities, and form new advantages of complementary regional advantages and coordinated development.
According to the interpretation of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, this is "a key move to help the province's high-quality development".
The leading cities of these five "circles" are either first-tier cities or provincial sub-central cities. In the view of experts who study regional development, Guangdong is a road suitable for Guangdong's regional coordinated development by cultivating and expanding the central cities of different regions, driving the development of the metropolitan area by the central city, and promoting the coordinated development of the whole region to a higher level through the interaction of the metropolitan area.
Differentiated positioning
"The richest place is in Guangdong, and the poorest place is also in Guangdong. This is a classic summary of the problem of unbalanced regional development in Guangdong.
There are huge differences in economic development between the Pearl River Delta region and the eastern and western parts of Guangdong and northern Guangdong, which can also be glimpsed from the basic conditions of the above five metropolitan areas.
Data source: According to the development plan of each metropolitan area
In 2022, the economic volume of the Guangzhou metropolitan area and the Shenzhen metropolitan area will reach the level of 4.46 trillion yuan and 4.9 trillion yuan, respectively, and the economic density will also reach 200 million yuan per square kilometer and 300 million yuan per square kilometer.
In comparison, the GDP of the metropolitan area on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary is only 1.3 trillion yuan, and the GDP of the Shanchaojie and Zhanmao metropolitan areas is less than one trillion yuan.
Going back, the Guangzhou and Shenzhen metropolitan areas were earlier known as "Guangzhou-Foshan-Zhaozhou" and "Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou", which are relatively mature areas in Guangdong Province for coordinated development. It was not until May 2020 that Guangdong issued the "Several Measures for Establishing and Improving the Institutional Mechanism and Policy System for Urban-Rural Integration Development in Guangdong Province", which increased the number of metropolitan areas in the province from 2 to 5 and renamed them.
"Guangzhou-Foshan-Zhaozhou" was reduced to "Guangzhou", "Shenzhen-Dongguan-Hui" was renamed "Shenzhen", and the dominance of the two megacities with a permanent population approaching the 20 million mark was further highlighted.
The three provincial economic sub-central cities were each assigned a metropolitan area, and Zhuhai, Shantou and Zhanjiang were upgraded to "half" leading brothers. The reason why I say "half" is because the relevant metropolitan area is named after the group form of "West Bank of the Pearl River Estuary", "Shanchaojie" and "Zhanmao".
Image source: "Dongguan City Land and Space Master Plan (2020-2035) (Draft)" public reader
According to the definition of a metropolitan area, the Guiding Opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission on Cultivating and Developing a Modern Metropolitan Area issued in February 2019 clearly stated: first, the urban agglomeration should be centered on super-large cities or large cities with strong radiation-driven functions, and second, the one-hour commuting circle should be the basic scope.
Obviously, Zhuhai, Shantou and Zhanjiang are not "big".
Although the economic volume of the three sub-central cities has reached the level of 300 billion to 400 billion yuan, their economic concentration in the province is very low.
In other provinces, if you want to become a sub-central city, the proportion of GDP in the province is at least 6% or more. Judging from the data in 2022, such as Ganzhou in Jiangxi, Qujing in Yunnan, and Xiangyang in Hubei, the concentration is above 10%, Zunyi in Guizhou is even as high as about 21%, and Xuzhou in Jiangsu and Wuhu in Anhui are also in the eastern region accounting for 6.88% and 9.99%.
On the other hand, Zhuhai, Zhanjiang and Shantou will only have 3.13%, 2.88% and 2.34% of the economy of Guangdong Province in 2022, and rank 6th, 9th and 11th in the province.
It is clear that the five metropolitan areas are at different stages of development.
"Based on the actual development of each metropolitan area, the goal and positioning are determined differently. Ai Xuefeng, director of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission and director of the Provincial Greater Bay Area Office, explained that the Guangzhou and Shenzhen metropolitan areas take Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the national central cities as the core to accelerate the development of surrounding cities, and cultivate them into modern mega-urban metropolitan areas that represent Guangdong and even the whole country to participate in international competition. With Zhuhai, Shantou and Zhanjiang as the center, Zhuhai, Shantou and Zhanjiang respectively accelerate the development of the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary and the east and west wings of the coastal economic belt, and cultivate them into important growth poles for the province's high-quality development.
In-circle vs. out-of-circle
It took about three and a half years for the above five metropolitan areas to go from the concept to the time the dust settled. During this period, the scope of the metropolitan area has undergone a process of increasing and decreasing.
Image source: Guangdong's 14th Five-Year Plan
Judging from the scope announced on December 20, the five "circles" cover a total population of 108 million, accounting for 85.41% of the province's total, covering a land area of 92,600 square kilometers, accounting for 51.5% of the province's total area, and a regional GDP of 12.08 trillion yuan, accounting for 93.57% of the province's total, involving 17 cities, of which 14 are included in the whole region, and 21 cities in Guangdong Province, most of which are included.
In 2022, Guangdong has a total of 7 prefecture-level cities with a GDP of 100 billion yuan, of which Yangjiang is included in the metropolitan area on the west bank of the Pearl River estuary, Chaozhou is included in the Shanchaojie metropolitan area, and Meizhou metropolitan area is the linkage development area of the Shanchaojie metropolitan area. Judging from the planning documents, the four cities of Shaoguan, Shanwei, Heyuan and Yunfu are not within the scope of the five "circles".
"Don't feel like I'm in a 'circle' or what's wrong with not being in a 'circle', and don't feel like I'm in this 'circle' and don't cooperate with that 'circle'. Liang Qi, a decision-making consulting expert of the Guangzhou municipal government and director of the Industrial and Regional Development Research Center of Sun Yat-sen University, wants to dispel the misunderstanding of "inside the circle and outside the circle".
Liang Qi said that the demarcation of metropolitan areas is a starting point for Guangdong Province to promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas and promote regional coordinated development.
However, this does not mean that these "metropolitan areas" limit cooperation and synergy between cities. On the one hand, the construction of industrial clusters and industrial chains in the province is not divided by administrative regions; on the other hand, Guangdong also needs to continue to play a window, experimental role, and vanguard role in reform and opening up.
To draw a "circle" is to use the metropolitan area as a breakthrough point, so that the cities in the circle can be integrated into a whole, and the economic elements can circulate and interact. It not only enhances the radiation driving capacity of the central city through the metropolitan area, but also takes into account the regional balance, so that small and medium-sized cities can "get on the bus", so as to achieve a higher level of coordinated development of the entire region.
This expectation can be confirmed in the overall development pattern planning of the five metropolitan areas.
Shanchaojie metropolitan area is planned to be a pattern of "one center, two poles, three rings and five shots". The main center of Shantou and the two important growth poles of Chaozhou and Jieyang have led the task of making themselves bigger and stronger. Relying on highways, intercity railways, high-speed rail networks and other channels, Shanchaojie metropolitan area and cities in Shanwei and Heyuan, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and coastal cities in Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang will promote the "axis of cooperation" with different themes.
The external link of the Zhanmao metropolitan area is more obvious. Zhanmao is "integrated development", Zhanmao is "linkage development" with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, "high-quality cooperative development" with Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, "going in the same direction" with Hainan Free Trade Port, and will expand "hinterland of maritime cargo sources and tourist sources" in the Guizhou-Guizhou-Sichuan-Chongqing region and the Guizhou-Hunan-Hubei region.
"Guangdong's coastline is very long, and we are facing the sea to think and develop, so that the development vision of the metropolitan area is broader. Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Provincial System Reform Commission, said.
Convergence and synergy
On the first working day of the Year of the Rabbit, Guangdong held a provincial high-quality development conference to firmly grasp the primary task of high-quality development, invigorate the spirit of entrepreneurship, and be determined to "rebuild a new Guangdong". According to the interpretation of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, cultivating and developing the five major metropolitan areas is "a key measure to help the province's high-quality development".
After drawing the "circle", the key is to realize the integration and coordination of the cities in the circle.
Territorial spatial development pattern of Guangzhou metropolitan area Image source: "Guidelines for the Coordination of Territorial and Spatial Planning of Guangdong Metropolitan Area"
Fan Hengshan, former deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission and a well-known economist, once talked about the four "indispensable" areas in the construction of the metropolitan area, which require strict integration, consistent pace and uniform coordination between various cities. They are the construction of major infrastructure, the establishment of a unified market, and the sharing of environmental protection and basic public services. Judging from the planning documents, 5 metropolitan areas need to make up classes.
The metropolitan area has an iconic criterion, which is the "one-hour commuting circle". Promoting infrastructure integration and infrastructure connectivity are at the top of the list in the five planning documents.
Under the same city of Guangzhou-Foshan, the Guangzhou-Foshan Line (Foshan Metro Line 1) was opened for operation as early as November 3, 2010. Later, there were Foshan Metro Line 2 and Guangzhou Metro Line 7. In the future, there will also be Guangzhou Metro Line 11.
In contrast, the connectivity and density of the Shenzhen metropolitan area seem to have been substantially improved. It was not until this year that the subways between Shenzhen and Dongguan and Huizhou have made clear progress.
Territorial spatial development pattern of Shenzhen metropolitan area Image source: "Guangdong Provincial Metropolitan Area Territorial Spatial Planning Coordination Guidelines"
Not only should the circle be coordinated, but also the outside should be integrated. Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and the metropolitan area on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary have all mentioned the need for "deep integration" with each other, "work together to build a world-class urban agglomeration in the Pearl River Delta" and "realize the deep integrated development of the urban agglomeration in the Pearl River Delta".
Synergy is the meaning of the development of the metropolitan area, but it is also the hardest bone. Fan Hengshan previously talked about two very real obstacles to the urbanization of the metropolitan area.
One comes from the interests of administrative regions and the constraints of related management, "each has its own administrative region, each has its own interests, and each city will also consider its own specific regional interests to meet the needs of economic and social development"; the other comes from the development gap between the main subjects, "the economically good places are reluctant to promote the same city, fearing that they will be cut off, and the economically backward areas are also unwilling to promote the same city, worried that the last bit of fertilizer water will flow to other people's fields".
At present, the five circles have been drawn, rushing to solve the problem of regional coordinated development, and towards the goal of forming a new support for the province's high-quality development, it is necessary for the core cities to show their minds and give full play to the spillover and radiation effects, and also to take care of the realistic foundation and find the greatest common divisor of regional development.
National Business Daily