Wuhan is in an important position in the strategy of the rise of central China, and the picture shows Wuhan Optics Valley. (Photo courtesy of People's Vision)
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the "Rise of Central China" strategy, the State Council once again made relevant arrangements.
On April 12, 2024, the executive meeting of the State Council studied the work related to promoting the accelerated rise of the central region in the new era, "supporting the central region to transform its location advantages and resource advantages into development advantages, and continuously improve its overall strength and competitiveness." ”
A month ago, the symposium on promoting the rise of the central region in the new era was just held in Changsha. The meeting pointed out that the economy of the central region is generally stable, the momentum of innovation and development has been continuously enhanced, and the industrial base has been significantly improved, but there are still many difficulties and challenges to promote the rise of the central region.
In the view of Wang Lei, vice president of the Central China Development Research Institute of Wuhan University, the internal and external environment is not waiting for me, and the central region has the advantage of being accessible in all directions, "not only staying in the geographical position, but also playing a role in leveraging the national unified market."
Southern Weekend noted that the full expression of "the rise of the central region" is changing, with the earliest term "promoting the rise of the central region" and in recent years evolving into "accelerating the rise of the central region".
"It's not about a higher share of national GDP"
During the 2004 session of the National People's Congress, the government work report for the first time clearly proposed to "promote the rise of the central region". So far, China's four major regions have formed a pattern of promoting the large-scale development of the western region, revitalizing the old industrial bases such as the northeast region, promoting the rise of the central region, and encouraging the eastern region to accelerate its development.
A year later, the government work report further proposed to "pay close attention to the study and formulation of plans and measures to promote the rise of the central region".
In 2006, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Rise of the Central Region", which called promoting the rise of the central region an "important and urgent strategic task", pointing out that this is conducive to improving the capacity of food and energy security, continuously expanding domestic demand, and cultivating new economic growth points.
In 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Central Region in the New Era", proposing 23 specific measures on building a modern industrial system supported by advanced manufacturing, enhancing the synergy of urban and rural regional development, and forming a new system of high-level opening up in the interior.
Over the past 20 years, the results of the rise of the central region are clearly reflected in the figures.
According to public information, in the past five years, the proportion of GDP in the central region's total GDP has basically fluctuated around 22%, and in 2023, it will increase by 3 percentage points compared with 2003.
However, Wang Lei believes that the rise of the central region is not the pursuit of expanding the total economic volume and accounting for a higher proportion of the national GDP, but to play a supporting role in the development pattern of the whole country, "through the rise of the central region, the development of other regions will be revitalized."
Chen Yao, vice president of the China Association of Regional Economics, said in an interview with Southern Weekend that the biggest difference between the central region and the other three regions is the strategic positioning of the grain production base, the energy raw material base, the modern equipment manufacturing and high-tech industrial base, and the comprehensive transportation hub.
Taking the grain production base as an example, among the six provinces in the central region, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Jiangxi, and Hunan are all major grain producing areas in China.
In terms of manufacturing, Chen Yao believes that the central region has a good foundation, from energy, raw materials to deep processing, the industrial chain is long and complete, and at the same time, the transportation location advantages of connecting the east and the west and connecting the south and the north make the central region have lower logistics costs.
In addition, the Chubu region hosts about 25% of the country's population with 10.7% of the country's land area. In Chen Yao's view, the central region "is a big market inside" and can play an important supporting role in smoothing the domestic circulation.
Improve regional synergy
It has advantages, but it also faces challenges for the central region to rise.
Wang Lei noticed that the central region has long not given full play to the advantages of science, education and manufacturing, and there are still blockages in the transformation channel from scientific and technological innovation to industrial innovation. He told Southern Weekend that this is related to the low proportion of the private economy, the small number of leading private enterprises, and the inactive market environment.
Chen Yao also found that the transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements are the shortcomings of the central region. After the emergence of scientific and technological achievements, a large amount of funds are needed, the transformation of achievements encounters resistance, and the reason for the lack of venture capital institutions, "insufficient support in science and technology finance".
Another problem is that the degree of coordination in the central region needs to be improved urgently.
In Chen Yao's view, the industrial homogeneity of the six central provinces is prominent, and there is a lack of differentiated division of labor based on technical conditions and industrial base, "now competition is still greater than cooperation." For example, he said that the degree of integration in the central region is low, resources are basically allocated within the province, there are still some local protection phenomena, the flow of factors across provinces is not smooth, and the phenomenon of market segmentation is relatively serious.
The Southern Weekend reporter noted that the symposium on promoting the rise of the central region in the new era held in March 2024 specifically pointed out this problem, calling for a comprehensive clean-up and correction of local protection behaviors, promoting the rational flow and optimal allocation of various productivity factors across regions, and better participating in the construction of a unified national market.
The executive meeting of the State Council held on April 12 also pointed out that it is necessary to promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, strengthen regional coordination and linkage, and strive to deepen reform and expand opening up.
Wang Lei's view is that concentrating forces to do big things is China's institutional advantage, but the central region is not as efficient as the Yangtze River Delta region, and it is difficult to concentrate forces. He made an analogy that if a squad leader is elected, the central region will benefit, "The question is who will be the squad leader?"
Judging from the practice of the past 20 years, relying entirely on the central region itself, there are still limitations in the breakthrough of functionality, and further support from the central government is needed.
Chen Yao agrees. Among the four regions in China, the central region is not the best or the worst in terms of development. In accordance with the working method of "grasping the middle of the two belts," in the past, there was no special policy for the central region, but the policy for the western and northeastern regions was used as a reference.
In Chen Yao's view, not only the central level needs to study policies for the central region, but also the central region should have a sense of opportunity and clearly express the policy demands that are highly targeted and truly effective for the central region.
Southern Weekly reporter Du Hansan
Editor-in-charge: Qian Haoping