On December 23, the 5th Zhuo Jiong Forum, hosted by the Guangdong Economic Association and hosted by the Party School of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (Guangdong School of Administration), was held at the Party School of the Provincial Party Committee, with the theme of "Leading the High-quality Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with Chinese-style Modernization". Zhang Guangning, executive vice president of the Party School of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Luo Mingzhong, executive vice president and secretary general of the Guangdong Economic Association, attended the meeting and delivered speeches.
At the meeting, four experts made keynote reports on Chinese-style modernization and the high-quality development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The conference also set up three parallel sub-forums, focusing on the three themes of regional economy and opening-up, digital economy and finance, rural revitalization and green development, and a total of 15 selected paper authors reported their research results. The guests at the meeting fully exchanged academic views on major theoretical and practical issues in their respective fields, and carried out heated discussions and in-depth exchanges.
More than 110 people attended the 5th Zhuojiong Forum from relevant experts and scholars from colleges and universities, the Academy of Social Sciences, the provincial party school (school of administration) system, enterprises, institutions and government departments, the responsible comrades of the academic affairs office, the scientific research office, the graduate department and various teaching and research departments, teacher representatives and master's students.
01/
Dong Xiaolin, former vice president of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies:
In the construction of metropolitan areas, it is necessary to guard against another tendency
In the keynote speech, Professor Dong Xiaolin, former vice president of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, analyzed the advantages and shortcomings of the current development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with the theme of building a high-quality Chinese-style modernization leading place in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and believed that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area should take promoting industrial upgrading, optimizing the governance model, and serving the new development pattern as an important starting point to build a leading place for Chinese-style modernization.
Recently, the provincial government has released five major metropolitan area development plans, including the Guangzhou Metropolitan Area Development Plan, the Shenzhen Metropolitan Area Development Plan, the Pearl River Estuary West Bank Metropolitan Area Development Plan, the Shanchaojie Metropolitan Area Development Plan, and the Zhanmao Metropolitan Area Development Plan, of which the first three core circles are located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
In this regard, Dong Xiaolin reminded in the report that the original intention of the plan is to strengthen the role of urban clusters as economic growth poles and enhance the radiation driving force of major cities. At the same time, it is necessary to guard against another tendency. First, we should not turn the "big cycle" into a "small cycle"; second, we should avoid replacing the cross-regional optimal combination of market allocation resources with administratively divided urban circles, because the Greater Bay Area should still face the world and strengthen the global resource allocation capacity; and third, we should firmly grasp the connotation and extension of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's construction of a "world-class city agglomeration".
Dong Xiaolin believes that it is not only necessary to strengthen the urban agglomeration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in terms of regional concept, but also to pay attention to the development of urban agglomerations in the world today is no longer limited to the regional concept, and the urban cooperation system based on informatization, networking, and digitalization across the limitations of geographical space has more significant room for development。
In his speech, Dong Xiaolin proposed to optimize the governance model and improve the governance level of world-class urban agglomerations. Managers should strengthen empathy with service recipients, and create a more favorable international, legal, and market-oriented business environment for the high-quality development of enterprises in the process of open development.
Dong Xiaolin also suggested in the report whether Jiangmen could consider being included in the Guangdong Free Trade Zone Linkage Development Zone.
In June 2022, the provincial government approved the establishment of Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone Linkage Development Zones in 13 cities, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Foshan, Shaoguan, Huizhou, Shanwei, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Yangjiang, Zhanjiang and Maoming. Of the nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, Jiangmen is the only one that is not included.
Dong Xiaolin analyzed the necessity of Jiangmen's inclusion. He said: Jiangmen's geographical area is the largest on the west bank of the Pearl River Delta, surpassing the combined area of Foshan, Zhuhai, and Zhongshan. According to the "14th Five-Year Plan for the High-quality Development of Manufacturing Industry in Guangdong Province", there are 4 cities in the province with ten strategic pillar industrial clusters and ten strategic emerging industrial clusters, one of which is Jiangmen. Moreover, Jiangmen has eight industrial clusters with strong advantages in the province, including smart home appliances, high-end equipment manufacturing, modern light industry and textiles, intelligent robots, biomedicine and health, laser and additive manufacturing, modern agriculture and food, safety emergency and environmental protection, etc.
02/
Li Shenglan, Deputy Dean of the Comprehensive Research Institute of Free Trade Zone of Sun Yat-sen University:
Give full play to the synergistic advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao
Explore the establishment of a county-level "specialized, special and new" cultivation work contact mechanism
Professor Li Shenglan, deputy dean of the Comprehensive Research Institute of Free Trade Zone of Sun Yat-sen University, from the county and county economy and characteristics, believes that the current county economy in Guangdong has problems such as insufficient scale, unbalanced development, large gap between fiscal revenue and expenditure, serious population loss, insufficient human capital and low level of marketization, and it is necessary to learn from and absorb the experience of county economic development in the process of urban-rural integration of foreign countries, further strengthen top-level design, strengthen regional cooperation, reasonably empower county subjects, and accelerate the high-quality development of Guangdong's county economy.
Li Shenglan pointed out in the report that if the developed cities in the Pearl River Delta such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan are the leaders of Guangdong's social and economic development, then the counties reflect Guangdong's "background", which is not only the key to Guangdong's balanced regional development, but also the confidence for Guangdong to achieve stable and good development under the background of "dual circulation". However, from the perspective of coordinated industrial development, the county-level industry and the Pearl River Delta region have not formed a reasonable industrial chain.
In this regard, she proposed to take the road of "specialization, refinement, special innovation" in the manufacturing industry to "protect the roots and protect the roots" for the economic development of the county. On the one hand, we should give full play to the synergistic advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, explore the establishment of a "specialized, special and new" cultivation mechanism for county-level enterprises centered in the Greater Bay Area, and guide the investment of global capital and market-oriented investment institutions;
In her speech, Li Shenglan suggested that the overall planning at the provincial level should be strengthened, and each county should adapt measures to local conditions, give full play to its own comparative advantages, do a good job in the division of labor, and do a good job in the division of labor.
03/
Zhao Xiang, Director of the Management Teaching and Research Department of the Party School of the Provincial Party Committee (Guangdong Institute of Administration):
The level of specialization and division of labor in the Bay Area needs to be improved
It is necessary to avoid the competition of "preferential" industrial policies
The high-quality development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is inseparable from regional coordinated development. Professor Zhao Xiang, Director of the Management Teaching and Research Department of the Party School of the Provincial Party Committee (Guangdong Institute of Administration), delivered a speech on "Industrial Policy Synergy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: Theoretical Framework and Practical Path". He analyzed the synergy of development strategies, policy instruments, and inter-regional public goods cooperation.
As can be seen from the statistics in the above figure, cities generally tend to cooperate with large cities with higher economic and technological development gradients, while cities with similar economic and technological gradients are not willing to cooperate with each other. For example, Zhongshan, in addition to staring at Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, which are four cities with high levels of economic development, seems to be less willing to cooperate with other cities.
From the perspective of the level of industrial development strategy coordination in the metropolitan area, the division of labor and cooperation between them is not clear, and the correlation between cities does not seem to be high. Like the western Zhuhai metropolitan area, Jiangmen's positioning of key industries is characterized by strong diversification, Zhongshan focuses on strengthening the region's advanced manufacturing functions, and Zhuhai continues to expand its brand effect and strengthen its advantageous industries.
Zhao Xiang pointed out that the current level of regional specialization and division of labor in the Greater Bay Area needs to be improved, the proportion of personalized policy tools is obviously low, and the willingness of core cities to cooperate between regions is significantly weaker than that of peripheral small and medium-sized cities.
At the end of the report, Zhao Xiang suggested that the overall goal of the urban agglomeration should be used to coordinate the preparation of the development plan of each region, clarify the functional division of labor in each region, guide the region to focus on the development of leading industries with comparative advantages, establish a regional industrial policy linkage mechanism, avoid the "preferential" industrial policy competition, and better promote the industrial policy coordination of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
In his speech, Zhao Xiang suggested that all regions should be further guided to focus on the development of leading industries with comparative advantages, alleviate the excessive policy preference for emerging high-tech industries, and promote the formation of a pattern of professional division of labor, cooperation and agglomeration development based on the subdivision of the industrial chain in various cities.
04/
Zhu Guilong, former dean of the School of Business Administration of South China University of Technology:
Digitalization is a must-answer for businesses, not a choice
Enterprises are an important subject to promote high-quality development. Professor Zhu Guilong, former dean of the School of Business Administration of South China University of Technology and vice chairman of the China Association for the Promotion of High-tech Industry, brought his understanding and thinking on the digital transformation of enterprises.
In Zhu Guilong's view, the digital transformation of enterprises is an important aspect of promoting Chinese-style modernization, and the digital construction of enterprises is the key to the construction of digital China.
Zhu Guilong gave an example to illustrate that digitalization is a mandatory question for enterprises, not a choice question.
In Professor Zhu Guilong's speech, he made a PPT on the digital development process of Midea.
Zhu Guilong pointed out through the practice cases of Midea and France that Guangdong enterprises should take their own development pain points as the core, continuously improve their data-driven capabilities, answer the must-answer question of digitalization, and realize the improvement of the value chain and the extension of the service chain.
Chita D
Zhuo Jiong: A well-known economist in mainland China, he is praised by academics as "the theoretical pioneer of China's economic reform". His main achievements lie in the proposition that "the socialist economy is a planned commodity economy" that he began to put forward in the early 60s of the 20th century and the theory of socialist commodity economy that he continued to improve afterwards, breaking through the theoretical framework of traditional political economy. His collection of essays, "On the Commodity Economy of Socialism", was listed as one of the "10 economic works that influenced the economic construction of New China".
Under the impetus of Zhuo Jiong's thought, a group of economists in Guangdong Province put forward and systematically expounded the theory of market economy in the initial stage of socialism on the mainland at an early stage, and made outstanding contributions to the theory and practice of reform and opening up on the mainland. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, in order to better inherit and carry forward the spirit of Zhuo Jiong, the first Zhuo Jiong Forum was held in 2019.
Written by: Nandu reporter Huang Haishan
Source: Courtesy of the interviewee