Wu Suwen, a trainee reporter of Southern Finance and Economics, reported from Guangzhou
At 3 p.m. on June 30, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor was officially opened for trial operation.
As the most difficult cross-sea cluster project in the world, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor spans the Lingding Ocean and adds a key "horizontal" to the east and west banks of the Pearl River Estuary.
For the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, what does the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor mean?
It is reported that after the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, the driving time between Shenzhen and Zhongshan will be shortened from two hours to half an hour, Zhuhai and Jiangmen to Shenzhen will be shortened from more than 2 hours to one hour, and Guangzhou Nansha will only take 15 minutes. According to the transportation department, the traffic flow of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor will exceed 80,000 vehicles per day after the opening of the corridor.
The new transportation pattern opens up new development space, and the originally relatively limited east-west exchanges, with the active flow of vehicles, people and logistics, promote the docking of industrial development, infrastructure and public services, so as to accelerate the development of regional integration.
Looking at the development trajectory of the world's world-class bay area, the three-dimensional transportation system that efficiently connects the bay area urban agglomeration, especially the closed-loop ecological effect formed by the connection of sea-crossing bridges, is indispensable. From this point of view, the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is a milestone, which enables the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to form a closed loop in a new sense, and can participate in the competition of the international bay area with a new pattern of more balanced development.
Urban agglomerations are undergoing great changes
With a population of 86 million and a GDP of 14 trillion yuan, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ranks first in terms of total population and second in terms of economic volume among the world's four major bay areas. However, the long-term uneven development of the east and west sides of the Pearl River Estuary is a major shortcoming in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, mainly due to the transportation barrier.
The highway passage across the Pearl River Estuary is mainly concentrated between Guangzhou and Dongguan in the middle and upper reaches, and the land exchanges between cities on the east and west banks of the Pearl River need to be detoured to the north. The Humen Bridge, built in 1997, has a maximum daily traffic volume of 198,000 vehicles, which has long been overloaded, and it will be blocked during the holidays and holidays, which will increase the traffic time.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, opened in 2018, has become a land passage connecting Zhuhai, Hong Kong and Macao in the lower reaches of the Pearl River Estuary, but due to the restrictions of the types of vehicles and relevant control policies, it is actually unable to meet the direct traffic needs of the east and west banks of the Pearl River Estuary, and the radiation function is limited.
As the only direct connection channel between the two major urban circles of "Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou" and "Zhuzhongjiang", the status of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is highlighted. The project is 24 kilometers long, starting from Bao'an, Shenzhen in the east, across the Lingding Ocean, west to Ma'an Island, Zhongshan, and reaching Nansha, Guangzhou through the branch line, which provides conditions for the flow of factors and complementary advantages on the east and west banks of the Pearl River Estuary.
"From the perspective of total GDP, 'Shenzhen-Dongguan-Hui' is 5 times that of 'Zhuzhongjiang', and Shenzhen is 10 times that of Zhongshan, and the huge gap also means that the ability to complement each other's advantages will be stronger." Wang Guowen, director of the Logistics and Supply Chain Management Planning Institute of China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, analyzed to the reporter of Southern Finance and Economics that the "hand-in-hand" between the east and west sides of the strait will bring great changes to the entire economic form, industrial form, and even urban agglomeration.
Both sides have urgent development needs and significant advantages.
Shenzhen's "20+8" strategic emerging industrial clusters have developed rapidly, covering many fields such as network and communication, semiconductor and integrated circuits, and ultra-high-definition video display, with strong innovation ability and market competitiveness, as well as strong industrial spillover capacity and gradient transfer effect. Constrained by limited land space and high production costs, Shenzhen has been eager to advance westward and penetrate further into the western Zhuhai metropolitan area.
On the other hand, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Yangjiang, cities in the western Zhuhai metropolitan area, have abundant land resources and low factor costs, but the urban innovation resources and capabilities are relatively lacking, the driving force for industrial transformation and upgrading is relatively insufficient, and the effect of industrial synergy and cooperation with the Shenzhen metropolitan area is also limited by the transportation distance. The focus of Zhongshan's urban development has also been moving eastward, and as early as a few years ago, it began to actively attract investment from Shenzhen, and the industrial cooperation between the two places has been frequent.
Today, the Shenzhen-China Corridor will greatly reduce time and transaction costs, activate the flow of people, logistics, capital, information and other factors, and inject new momentum into bilateral development. In particular, the cities on the west bank of the Pearl River have strengthened industrial synergy and promoted changes in the industrial structure, business environment, infrastructure, urban renewal, public services and many other aspects, opening a new round of "changing cages for birds" to seek new impetus.
Shenzhen has a plan and a clear division of labor. It is reported that Baoan will improve industrial planning and undertake the "flow" brought by the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor through the "four reshaping", that is, the reshaping of the industrial structure, value system, spatial layout and industrial elements. Qianhai will speed up the construction of advanced manufacturing and economic headquarters clusters in the gateway area of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, link Zhongshan, Jiangmen and other cities, and actively explore new cooperation models of "headquarters + manufacturing", "chain master + supporting" and "R&D + transformation".
How can Zhuxi enhance industrial synergy and scientific and technological innovation capabilities?
Wang Honglu, a researcher at the Shenzhen Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told the Southern Finance and Economics all-media reporter that through the joint construction of industrial parks, the promotion of the open sharing of scientific and technological resources and innovation elements, and the construction of scientific and technological innovation platforms, we can strengthen the exchange and cooperation of scientific and technological resources between regions, promote the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements in the local area, and accelerate the upgrading and transformation of their own industrial clusters.
A truly world-class Bay Area
At present, other bay areas are driving economic transformation with innovation, New York, as a traditional financial center, is focusing on technological innovation and high-tech industries, San Francisco is promoting the revival of the science and technology bay area through the artificial intelligence boom, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is also aiming to build an international science and technology innovation center with global influence.
The premise of supporting innovative economic cooperation and the diffusion of innovative elements lies in an efficient and convenient three-dimensional transportation network.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, multiple sea-crossing bridges connect the entire bay area to the northwest, opening up the natural partition of the cross-bay urban agglomeration. The continuous space of the ring closure meets the needs of the flow of industry and human elements, and forms an efficient spatio-temporal pattern of the urban agglomeration. At the same time, it has built a smart transportation system in the Bay Area early to maximize the efficiency of traffic operation.
"There are seven bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area, most of which are east-west bridges across the bay to ensure the timeliness and efficiency of the circulation of regional elements, otherwise it is very difficult to realize the cross-sea flow of elements between the urban agglomerations in the Bay Area. This is very similar to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Wang Guowen said.
Compared with the San Francisco Bay Area, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is larger in terms of area, population and total GDP, but there is still a large gap between the per capita output and per capita output density and the former. In this regard, Wang Guowen believes that the density of sea-crossing bridges on the east and west banks of the Pearl River needs to be further strengthened, such as putting the construction of the Shenzhen-Zhuhai Corridor on the agenda to solve the large-scale flow of factors between cities in the Bay Area.
Liu Ying, a researcher and director of the cooperative research department of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University of Chinese, said in an interview with the media: "If the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge has achieved a closed loop in the Greater Bay Area strategically and geographically, then the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor has achieved the 'second closed loop' in a new sense, that is, it has laid a solid foundation for the high-quality economic development of the Greater Bay Area in multiple dimensions such as economic circulation, industrial coordination, transportation and logistics, and supply chain." ”
From this perspective, the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is a key and substantial step for the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Today's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has the Humen Bridge in the north, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in the south, and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor connecting the Shenzhen metropolitan area and the western Zhuhai metropolitan area. At the same time, major transportation projects such as the Zhongkai Expressway, the Shenzhen-Jiangxi Railway, the South-Central Intercity, and the Shenzhen-South Intercity have been promoted one after another, coupled with the Shenzhen-Zhongshan cross-city buses, airports, combined ports, low-altitude routes, etc., the three-dimensional transportation system of sea, land and air has been continuously improved, and there is more and more world-class transportation infrastructure in the Bay Area.
Of course, the radiation of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is not only in the two metropolitan areas of Shenzhen and Zhuxi, but also shortens the physical distance between the four major strategic cooperation platforms of Hengqin, Qianhai, Nansha and Hetao, which is more convenient for the replication and application of innovative achievements. From Hong Kong's perspective, Qianhai can also rely on Qianhai to penetrate into the hinterland of the market on the west bank of the Pearl River and accelerate technological innovation and application.
Wang Honglu said that the acceleration of transportation interconnection will promote the flow of high-end talents, advanced technologies and industrial elements from Shenzhen, Hong Kong and other places to Zhongshan, Zhuhai and other cities, and provide more talents and resource support for the latter's digital economy, artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing and other industries, while the R&D and innovation capabilities of Shenzhen and Hong Kong universities will be combined with the west bank of the Pearl River, which will help build a world-class urban agglomeration and enhance the overall competitiveness and international influence of the Greater Bay Area.
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