In the new stage of economic transformation and upgrading, the role of central cities in regional economic development has become increasingly prominent.
Central cities include municipalities directly under the central government, provincial capital cities, cities with separate plans and some big economic cities. At present, there are 36 cities in the first three categories, but in addition, some ordinary prefecture-level cities are also strong.
The First Financial Reporter sorted out the top 20 GDP of ordinary prefecture-level cities in 2019, among which the top 19 cities all exceeded the 500 billion yuan mark, and three cities entered the ranks of GDP trillion clubs, namely Suzhou, Wuxi and Foshan.
In addition, in terms of provinces, among the top 20, Jiangsu accounts for 8 and Zhejiang accounts for 4. It can be said that Jiangsu and Zhejiang are the strongest regions in ordinary prefecture-level cities, and the sum of the two provinces reaches 60%.
threeThe city exceeds one trillion yuanthreeCity quasi-trillion
The top 20 GDP20 of ordinary prefecture-level cities in 2019 are: Suzhou, Wuxi, Foshan, Quanzhou, Dongguan, Nantong, Yantai, Changzhou, Xuzhou, Tangshan, Wenzhou, Yangzhou, Shaoxing, Yancheng, Weifang, Jiaxing, Taizhou, Taizhou, Luoyang and Xiangyang.
The strongest Suzhou’s GDP in 2019 has reached 1,923.58 billion yuan, nearly 2 trillion yuan, more than 700 billion yuan more than the second Wuxi, and it is in a far leading position.
Although it is only an ordinary prefecture-level city, Suzhou’s GDP has far exceeded that of many cities with higher administrative levels than its own. Last year, Suzhou’s total economic output ranked sixth among all cities in China, second only to Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and Chongqing, a municipality directly under the Central Government.
In the middle and late 1990s, with the development of export-oriented economy, Suzhou’s economic aggregate expanded rapidly. Several county-level cities under its jurisdiction, such as Kunshan, Zhangjiagang and Changshu, have long been among the top five of China’s top 100 counties.
Judging from several important economic indicators, Suzhou can be said to be "unmatched" in ordinary prefecture-level cities. For example, in terms of capital stock, Suzhou has exceeded 3.16 trillion yuan last year, while Wuxi, the second place, is only 1.76 trillion yuan. For another example, the number of high-tech enterprises in Suzhou has reached 7052, ranking first not only in ordinary prefecture-level cities, but also second only to the four first-tier cities in Guangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, ranking first in all second-tier cities.
Like Suzhou, with the development of export-oriented industries, Wuxi, located in southern Jiangsu Province, has also developed rapidly after the reform and opening up. In Jiangsu province, Wuxi has followed Suzhou for many years, and its GDP ranks second in Jiangsu. Only in recent years, Nanjing, the provincial capital, has made great efforts to strengthen itself. In 2014, the total GDP finally surpassed Wuxi and rose to the second place. However, Wuxi’s advantages are still outstanding. Last year, Wuxi’s per capita GDP was as high as 180,000 yuan, ranking first not only among cities in Jiangsu, but also among ordinary prefecture-level cities in China.
Foshan, ranked third, broke the 1 trillion yuan mark in GDP in 2019, becoming the third city in Guangdong Province with GDP exceeding 1 trillion yuan after Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Last year, Foshan’s tertiary industrial structure was 1.5: 56.5: 42.0, and industrial manufacturing occupied an absolute dominant position. Including equipment manufacturing, household appliances, ceramic building materials, furniture, metal products and other industrial economic strength is outstanding. Emerging industries such as optoelectronics, new materials, biopharmaceuticals, robots and new energy vehicles are booming.
In addition to these three cities, Quanzhou, Dongguan and Nantong are all in the echelon of GDP of 900 billion yuan, becoming the reserve army of trillion clubs. Among them, Quanzhou’s GDP reached 994.666 billion yuan last year, just one step away from the trillion mark. However, in the first quarter of this year, the city’s GDP fell by 10.3%, and whether it can be promoted is still a big variable.
Ding Changfa, an associate professor in the Department of Economics of Xiamen University, analyzed the first financial reporter that Jinjiang and Shishi in Quanzhou have a large number of migrants. Under the influence of the epidemic, many production buttons were pressed in the first quarter, and employees returned to work slowly. At the same time, the base in the first quarter of last year was also relatively high, so this year’s decline was relatively large.
The strength of Jiangsu and Zhejiang prefecture-level cities is balanced
Judging from the distribution of the top 20 provinces, there are 8 in Jiangsu, 4 in Zhejiang, 2 in Guangdong and Shandong, and 1 in Fujian, Hebei, Henan and Hubei.
The overall development of cities is relatively balanced, which is one of the characteristics of regional economic development in Jiangsu. The online teasing of "Bulk Jiangsu" can also be said to be the embodiment of this feature. The data shows that at present, the GDP of 13 cities in Jiangsu Province all exceeds 300 billion yuan, which is the only one in the country. In addition, due to the large number of economic cities, Jiangsu has the largest number of cities approved to build subways in China, including Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Xuzhou and Nantong.
The prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang are also relatively strong, with Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Jiaxing and Taizhou among the top 20. Considering that there are only 11 cities in Zhejiang province, including two sub-provincial cities, Hangzhou and Ningbo, the shortlisted proportion of Zhejiang is also very high.
A total of 12 cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were among the top 20, accounting for three fifths, which also highlighted the balanced development of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Tian Boping, a researcher at Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed the First Financial Reporter that there are several main factors for the development of ordinary prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang: First, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have good natural geographical conditions and are located in coastal areas with convenient transportation; Second, due to historical development, the foundation is relatively good, the population is large, and the business atmosphere is strong; Third, after the reform and opening-up, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces were relatively emancipated and seized the opportunity of development.
In contrast, only two cities, Guangdong, the largest economic province, and Shandong, the third largest economic province, were shortlisted. Among them, Guangdong is the most unbalanced province in the coastal area, mainly concentrated in the Pearl River Delta, especially in two sub-provincial cities, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and two manufacturing centers, Foshan and Dongguan. The data shows that the total GDP of these four cities accounts for nearly 70% of Guangdong.
In terms of larger regional distribution, 18 of the top 20 are located in the eastern coastal areas, while only 2 (Luoyang and Xiangyang) are located in the vast central, western and northeastern regions, all of which are from the central region, ranking 19th and 20th respectively. It can be seen that although the provincial capital cities in the central and western regions have developed rapidly in recent years, the gap between them and the coastal first-and second-tier cities is very small, but there is still a big gap between the ordinary prefecture-level cities in the central and western regions and the coastal areas. In the central and western regions, provincial capital cities are the unipolar core cities in most provinces, and other ordinary prefecture-level cities in the province can gather relatively limited factor resources, which has a huge gap with provincial capital cities.
Future development paths are different.
Compared with municipalities directly under the central government, provincial capital cities and cities with separate plans, the economic big cities in ordinary prefecture-level cities are mainly industrial manufacturing, and the traditional manufacturing industry in many cities accounts for a relatively high proportion. For these manufacturing big cities, although the service industry should be accelerated in the future, they should rely on the existing industrial base to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of industrial manufacturing.
However, due to the geographical differences, the paths of transformation, upgrading and development of these cities are also different. In recent years, some large manufacturing cities close to first-tier cities and second-tier leading cities have successfully accepted the spillover of metropolises and achieved industrial division and complementarity with central metropolises, with remarkable transformation results.
A typical example is Dongguan. At present, the smart phone industry has become its most representative industry. The world-famous big-name mobile phones such as Huawei, OPPO and vivo are all produced in Dongguan. In 2019, the added value of Dongguan’s five pillar industries reached 313.378 billion yuan, an increase of 10.8%.
"Dongguan is ‘ It’s good to enjoy the cool under a big tree ’ 。” Ding Changfa said that the transformation and upgrading of Dongguan was relatively early, and the intensity was also great. After 2008, many traditional manufacturing industries such as clothing and toys have been transferred out. At the same time, Dongguan is close to Shenzhen, where land, labor and housing prices are much cheaper than Shenzhen, attracting many industries in Shenzhen, such as Huawei terminals.
Peng Peng, executive president of Guangdong Provincial System Reform Research Association, analyzed the first financial reporter. In recent ten years, emerging industries in Dongguan have developed rapidly, mainly undertaking a large number of high-tech industrial spillovers from Shenzhen, and the resilience of economic development has been continuously enhanced.
The data shows that in 2019, the number of national high-tech enterprises in Dongguan has reached 6,228, second only to Suzhou in second-tier cities.
Similar to Dongguan, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nantong, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Foshan and other manufacturing cities are close to first-tier cities or second-tier leading cities. In the future, through cooperation with the "big trees" next to them, industrial transformation and upgrading can be better realized.
However, some manufacturing cities, such as Quanzhou, Xuzhou, Wenzhou and Yantai, are far away from first-tier cities and second-tier leading cities, and the transformation and upgrading are more difficult. For example, the number of high-tech enterprises in Quanzhou, a big private economy city, is only 685, while that in Yantai is only 635, which is very different from the economic cities in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta.
Ding Changfa said that although Quanzhou’s economy has developed well in recent years, there are still many shortcomings in the high-tech industry, among which talent is the biggest shortcoming. In the future, Quanzhou still needs to improve the business environment, improve the level of government public services, and attract talents through various measures.
For the manufacturing city far away from the "big tree", it is still necessary to "practice internal strength" in the future, accelerate the upgrading of urban energy level, enhance the primacy of the central city, accelerate the development of modern service industry, and better play its leading and radiating role in the region.
Wenzhou, for example, proposed that by 2025, Wenzhou should become an important "southern gate" for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and a "bridgehead" for docking Fujian and Taiwan, and truly play an important role in the province’s economic growth in roof of the world, with the central city economy accounting for more than 45% of the city’s total economic output.
In April this year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Key Tasks of New Urbanization Construction and Urban-Rural Integration Development in 2020" to enhance the energy level and core competitiveness of central cities. Optimize the development of central cities such as municipalities directly under the central government, provincial capital cities, cities with separate plans and important node cities, strengthen the protection of land use and other factors, and optimize the layout of major productive forces.
It can be seen that important node cities will be the focus of future development. Cities including Xuzhou, Wenzhou, Quanzhou, Xiangyang and Yantai are far away from first-tier cities and second-tier leading cities, but these cities play a great role in promoting the economic development of surrounding areas and belong to important node cities. In the future, these cities will accelerate the construction of provincial sub-centers and regional central cities and enhance the functions and energy levels of central cities, which will better promote regional economic development.