The Story of Spring, the Legend of Immortality - A Review of the Spirit of the Special Administrative Region

Xinhua News Agency, Shenzhen, August 30 Title: The Story of Spring, Immortal Legend - A Review of the Spirit of the Special Administrative Region

Xinhua News Agency reporter Sun Fei

Reform and opening up is a key move to determine the future and destiny of contemporary China. The establishment of special economic zones is a great pioneering undertaking carried out by the party and the state to promote reform, opening up, and socialist modernization.

Under the overall planning and deployment of the Party Central Committee, on August 26, 1980, four special economic zones of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen were established; in 1988, Hainan established a provincial special economic zone. Since the establishment of the special economic zone, it has created a Chinese speed and a Chinese miracle that will forever be recorded in history.

On October 14, 2020, at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphatically pointed out: "We must carry forward the national spirit with patriotism as the core and the spirit of the times with reform and innovation as the core, continue to carry forward the spirit of the special zone that dares to try, dare to be the first, and work hard, and encourage cadres and the masses to be the 'pioneering cattle' of the new era." ”

(Subtitle) Dare to try - "Kill a Blood Road"

In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made the historic decision to shift the work center of the Party and the state to economic construction and carry out reform and opening up.

In April 1979, the person in charge of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee proposed to the central leading comrades to establish an export processing zone and promote reform and opening up. Comrade Deng Xiaoping clearly pointed out that it is better to call the SPECIAL ZONE, and the central authorities can give some policies to you to carry out on your own and kill a bloody road.

In July of the same year, the Party Central Committee and the State Council approved Guangdong and Fujian provinces to implement "special policies, flexible measures, and one step ahead" and to set up special export zones on a trial basis. In August 1980, the party and the state approved the establishment of special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen, and in April 1988, the establishment of the Hainan Special Economic Zone was approved, which clearly required the special economic zone to play an important window and demonstration role in the country's reform, opening up and socialist modernization.

Yuan Geng, who had participated in revolutionary work in his early years, served as the executive vice chairman of China Merchants in 1978, and under his leadership, Shekou Industrial Zone, China's first industrial park opened to the outside world, was born in 1979 on the Nantou Peninsula of Bao'an near Hong Kong, blowing up the "opening cannon" of reform and opening up.

"When I first arrived at the mouth of the snake, I was really poor and white, and I had to hang a mosquito net to sleep at night, not to prevent mosquitoes, but to prevent snakes and rats." Gu Liji, who came to work in Shekou after graduating from Tsinghua University, recalled.

At that time, the first project of Shekou Industrial Zone, Shekou Port, was started. In the beginning, workers could only transport 20 to 30 trucks of mud per person for 8 hours a day, and the progress of the project was slow. Yuan Geng pioneered the breaking of the cauldron of rice and the implementation of a quota overproduction reward system: completed the daily quota of 55 cars, 2 cents per car award, and 4 points per car bonus.

The workers' enthusiasm has increased greatly, with an average of 80 to 90 cars of mud per person per working day, and some even reach 131 cars, and the workers' bonuses and wages can get more than 110 yuan a month at most, and some people's monthly income far exceeds that of middle-level cadres in Shekou Industrial Zone. The construction site is in full swing and the progress is advancing rapidly.

Starting from the reform and exploration of the Shekou Industrial Zone, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was born. In more than 40 years, Shenzhen has developed from a backward border town into an international metropolis with global influence, and its GDP has increased from 270 million yuan in 1980 to 2.77 trillion yuan in 2020, second only to Beijing and Shanghai, and comparable to Hong Kong, which was once a huge gap. In contrast to the "wave of fleeing Hong Kong" in those years, more and more Hong Kong people are now choosing to start a business and settle in Shenzhen.

Dare to be the first - "The first to eat crabs"

The first to break the egalitarian "big pot rice" wage system, the first hammer to ring the chinese land auction, the first foreign exchange adjustment center was established... The courage to "be the first to eat crabs" is a distinctive trait of special economic zones.

In 1987, the Interim Provisions of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government on Encouraging Scientific and Technological Personnel to Establish Non-governmental Science and Technology Enterprises was promulgated. This famous "Document No. 18" has become the "fuse" that activates the vitality of China's scientific and technological innovation.

"Huawei's development has benefited from changes in the national political environment and Shenzhen's economic environment, and without reform and opening up, there will be no development for us." Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said.

In 1988, the Shenzhen Municipal Government established the Capital Market Leading Group, and Yu Guogang, one of the first batch of international students in China to study securities professional knowledge in Japan, served as the leader of the expert group. He led the members of the expert group to spend more than half a year translating more than two million words of foreign language materials, and through transplanting and learning, he created the first "Blue Book" of the New China Stock Exchange - "Compilation of Materials for the Preparation of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange".

On December 1, 1990, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange took the lead in starting centralized trading, and China's capital market entered the "spring" of rapid development, inserting "wings" for economic take-off.

Reform the state-owned asset management system and create outstanding achievements in the development of local state-owned enterprises; gradually establish a financial system in the special zone and establish the country's first Sino-foreign joint venture bank; deepen the reform of the fiscal, taxation, and price circulation system... Since the construction of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone, the reform of the institutional mechanism of the Xiamen market economy has been continuously promoted, and the innovation vitality of enterprises has been continuously stimulated.

As an upgraded version of the "24-hour reply" launched by the Shantou Special Economic Zone in 1987, the Shantou Municipal Government Service Center is now a 24-hour self-service area, providing extremely convenient services for enterprises to handle taxes. In 1987, Chen Xiqian, a Hong Kong businessman who invested in shantou and set up a factory, put forward opinions and suggestions to the SAR Management Committee due to problems such as the procrastination of the organs, and the management committee quickly promised that "the enterprises will respond to the problems reflected within 24 hours." Since then, the "24-hour reply" has become shantou's golden signboard.

Recently, the Hainan Free Trade Port Law was voted through and implemented, and 57 provincial-level management authority adjustments were implemented by the management agencies of key parks, and the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port was in full swing towards the grand goal of opening up to the world's highest level.

"The genes of special economic zones that dare to be the first run through the whole process and stimulate the first driving force for innovation." Guo Wanda, executive vice president of the China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, said.

Immersed in Hard Work: Continuing to Write "The Story of Spring"

For more than 40 years, generation after generation of SEZ strivers have dared to try, dare to be the first, immerse themselves in hard work, and use the spirit of the SAR as the driving force to forge ahead and face difficulties.

Guomao Building, Diwang Building, Kingkey 100, Ping An International Financial Center... After coming to Shenzhen in 1982, Lu Jianxin, a national model worker and chief engineer of the South China Region of China Construction Science and Industry Group Co., Ltd., participated in the construction of these landmark skyscrapers. He witnessed the "Shenzhen Speed" of one floor in three days and led the team to upgrade China's super high-rise steel structure construction technology to the world-class level, known as the "King of China's Building".

Nowadays, towards the goal of "benchmarking people's livelihood and happiness", Shenzhen's "pioneering cattle" are focusing on creating "Shenzhen temperature". "Enterprises are promoting transformation and upgrading, and a large number of people's livelihood projects are being promoted, such as prefabricated buildings such as schools, hospitals, affordable housing, as well as urban greenways and old city transformation projects." Lu Jianxin said.

The builders of the special economic zone have not changed their spirit of hard work, and the goal of pursuing innovative development has not changed.

"For decades, only one wall was charged." Ren Zhengfei summed up Huawei's development and growth path in this way. In the first half of this year, Huawei achieved sales revenue of 320.4 billion yuan and a net profit margin of 9.8%.

At the snap of a finger, the vicissitudes of the sea become mulberry fields.

In the "special zone within the special zone", the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, a temporary building complex consisting of 333 waste containers is very eye-catching, which is the office of the Qianhai Administration. In order to facilitate the enterprise to do things nearby, the Qianhai Administration bureau decided to relocate to the Qianhai construction site as a whole and build an office space with containers.

It is precisely with the unremitting pursuit of ideals, always adhering to the spirit of hard work and enterprising, the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone has launched a total of 645 institutional innovation achievements since its establishment in 2010, and copied and promoted 65 throughout the country.

Always maintain the spirit of "breaking through", the momentum of "creating", and the style of "doing", and strive to continue to write more "spring stories" - the spirit of the special zone, and inspire generations of reformers to move forward courageously. (End)