Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Wang Chenting
Thirty-one provinces across the country have successively released their economic report cards for the first half of the year.
In the first half of the year, Inner Mongolia became the growth champion with a year-on-year growth rate of 6.2%, followed by Chongqing and Tibet, and the GDP growth rate of a total of 18 provinces outperformed or was on par with the national market; The growth rate of Qinghai, Heilongjiang and Shanxi is temporarily at the bottom.
On the whole, the major economic provinces have stabilized their positions and basically maintained a good growth rate, and there has been no significant change in their rankings. In terms of regions, the western provinces grew rapidly, and the northeast gradually recovered. According to the ranking, compared with the same period last year, Beijing's total GDP caught up with Hebei, and Inner Mongolia surpassed Shanxi; The gap between Jiangxi and Chongqing, Yunnan and Liaoning, and Jilin and Gansu has also narrowed to less than 50 billion yuan, and there may still be variables throughout the year.
GDP of each province in the first half of 2024 (Mapping: Times Finance Wang Chenting)
Is the Northeast picking up?
At the beginning of 2024, Harbin will become the first dark horse of cultural tourism in the short video mode. But judging from the economic data, this does not seem to have brought "sky-high wealth" to Heilongjiang.
In the first half of the year, Heilongjiang completed GDP6636 200 million yuan, a nominal increase of 0.48% and a real growth of 1.5%, ranking relatively low among all provinces in the country. The other two provinces of the three northeastern provinces, Liaoning and Jilin, outperformed the country at 5.0% and 5.7% respectively.
Since last year, with the return of population, the discussion of economic recovery in Northeast China has gradually risen. But this data from Heilongjiang seems to add a touch of haze to the "Northeast Warming". What happened to Heilongjiang?
Judging from the specific data, the main problem of Heilongjiang's economy in the first half of the year was industry, and the added value of its secondary industry was 208.43 billion yuan, down 4.0 percent, and the added value of the province's industrial enterprises above designated size fell by 5.6 percent year-on-year, which was still larger than the decline in the first quarter (4.9 percent). Among them, the added value of the mining industry decreased by 13.2%. The added value of the province's service industry also slipped from 5.3% growth in the first quarter to 3.9%, lagging behind the national average.
It is worth mentioning that Times Finance saw on the official website of the Heilongjiang Department of Industry and Information Technology that the department has recently issued three announcements on canceling the provincial manufacturing single champion incentive policy, the provincial support for the pre-planning subsidy of major emerging industry projects, and some digital economy reward and subsidy policies. According to the notice, the purpose of the cancellation is to "better play the incentive and preferential effect of the incentive and subsidy policy, and strengthen the accuracy of the incentive and subsidy policy to help enterprises".
(Source: Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology official website)
Liaoning and Jilin grew steadily in the first half of the year, largely because of the "stabilization" of industry.
In the first half of the year, the added value of Liaoning's secondary industry was 570 billion yuan, an increase of 4.4 percent; The added value of the province's industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 3.3% year-on-year. Among them, the high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 15.5%.
Liaoning's shipbuilding data in the first half of the year was particularly bright, and its civil steel ship output increased by 1.6 times year-on-year. At the beginning of April, the world's first 7,500 cubic meter liquid carbon dioxide carrier was undocked at China Shipbuilding Group Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd. Around the world's first ship specializing in marine carbon transportation and storage, Liaoning has formed a "group" and a "chain".
In addition, 364 key projects, including the first phase of the model technical transformation of BMW Brilliance's Dadong plant and the manufacturing of large-scale high-end wind power core components of Dalian Sinovel Heavy Industries, were completed and put into operation, with an additional output value of 16.2 billion yuan. In the first half of the year, the output of urban rail vehicles increased by 24.9%, and the output of new energy vehicles increased by 19.3%, and the structural adjustment achieved results.
Jilin, the growth champion in the first quarter, declined slightly in the second quarter, but the actual growth rate still maintained the eighth place in the country. The added value of its secondary industry was 209.29 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.5%. Although there is still a gap between Jilin's total GDP and Heilongjiang, it has surpassed Heilongjiang in terms of added value of the secondary industry.
The new energy industry in Jilin has begun to show returns.
Changchun, Jilin Province, is the base camp of FAW-Volkswagen. A few days ago, FAW-Volkswagen Co., Ltd. rolled off the assembly line in Changchun for the 28 million vehicle, becoming the first domestic passenger car company with production and sales exceeding 28 million. In January this year, FAW Audi new energy vehicle project started pre-mass production, with a total investment of 35.8 billion yuan and a designed annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles; As the first new energy vehicle power battery production base in Northeast China, the first phase of FAW Foday's new energy power battery project was also put into operation in the first quarter.
On the new track, in the first half of the year, Changchun's building materials industry dominated by new materials also had a good momentum, hydrogen energy and new energy storage industries stepped onto a new level, the layout of low-altitude economy has achieved initial results, and the output value of aviation, spacecraft and equipment manufacturing industry has increased significantly.
Changchun is promoting "automobile + cultural tourism". (Source: Screenshot of social networks)
In the view of Sun Jiuwen, a professor at the School of Applied Economics of Chinese University, the northeast is an important old industrial base on the mainland, with a number of strategic industries related to the lifeline of the national economy and national security. However, for a long time, the Northeast region is still facing problems such as a single industrial structure, difficulties in the transformation of traditional industries, and insufficient growth of new kinetic energy.
In this context, the Northeast region should rely on the rich scientific and educational resources, learn from the experience of the transformation of resource-based cities such as Lyon France and United States Pittsburgh, and adopt appropriate policies to promote industrial innovation with scientific and technological innovation. Promote the transformation of traditional industries into modern industries, actively cultivate strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing, and electronic information, and cultivate new quality productivity. Sun Jiuwen said.
At the same time, the geographical advantages of Northeast China adjacent to Northeast Asia still need to be rationally developed and effectively utilized. It is worth noting that Heilongjiang's foreign trade scale exceeded 150 billion yuan for the first time in the first half of the year, a record high, an increase of 9.7% over the same period last year. Among them, the scale of imports and exports to the Belt and Road countries and other BRICS countries continued to expand.
Foreign trade in the western region has accelerated
In terms of sub-regions, the western region performed better in the first half of the year as a whole. Among the 12 western provinces, 9 outperformed the national growth rate, and the growth rates of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Chongqing were 6.2%, 6.1% and 6.1% respectively, accounting for the top three growth rates in the country in the first half of the year.
In line with the key factors driving the economy in the past two years, fixed investment in Inner Mongolia has carried the banner. In the first half of the year, the region's investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) increased by 12.0 percent year-on-year, 8.1 percentage points higher than the national average in the same period, ranking second in the country, second only to Tibet.
It is worth mentioning that the investment in the primary industry of domestic Mongolia increased by 77% year-on-year in the first half of the year, which was 73.9 percentage points higher than the growth rate of investment in the primary industry in the country. Among them, driven by the accelerated implementation of high-standard farmland projects, the region's agricultural investment increased by 2.3 times.
The growth rate of fixed investment in Tibet reached 25.7 percent, of which private investment increased by 49.7 percent, an increase of 19.2 percentage points from January to May.
Chongqing's growth is mainly due to industry, especially the automotive industry. In the first half of the year, Chongqing's above-scale industries maintained a high level of operation, and the industrial added value increased by 8.6% year-on-year, an increase of 5.1 and 2 percentage points respectively over the same period last year and last year, ranking fifth in the country.
The added value of the automobile industry increased by 30.3% year-on-year, becoming the main support for Chongqing's industrial growth, driving the city's industrial growth rate by 5.1 percentage points, of which the output of new energy vehicles increased by 1.5 times year-on-year, driving the automobile output to return to the first place in the country.
(Source: Picture Worm Creative)
In the first half of the year, the added value of Chongqing's service industry increased by 5.8% year-on-year, 1.2 percentage points higher than the national level, ranking first in the country (tied with Shanghai and Sichuan); The total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 3.9% year-on-year, ranking first among the five international consumption center cities, and the number of inbound tourists received increased by three times year-on-year.
"The outstanding performance of the western region's GDP growth in the first half of 2024 is the result of a combination of factors. The first is to benefit from the optimization of the economic structure and industrial transformation and upgrading. The western region has actively developed new and high-tech industries, clean energy, cultural tourism, and other emerging industries to provide new impetus for economic development. Huang Qinghua, deputy dean and professor of the School of Economics and Management of Southwest University, told Times Finance in an interview.
At the same time, he also pointed out that relying on its own resource advantages and good ecological environment, the western region has promoted the development of agricultural industries and special industries, improved product quality and added value, and injected new impetus into economic development.
In addition, Huang Qinghua believes that the new round of policy support for the development of the western region, through economic and trade cooperation with the "Belt and Road" countries, the establishment of a pilot free trade zone, etc., have attracted a large amount of investment, which has also played a key role in the rapid growth of the western region.
On 23 April this year, a forum on promoting the large-scale development of the western region in the new era was held in Chongqing, which once again made it clear that the western region plays a pivotal role in the overall situation of reform, development, and stability in the country, and that it is necessary to persist in taking the development of industries with special advantages as the main direction of attack, and to raise the level of opening up of the western region to the outside world.
The western region became the region with the fastest growth in foreign trade in the first half of the year. According to the statistics of Chengdu Customs, in the first half of this year, the import and export of 12 western provinces was 1.93 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.2%, and the main import and export commodities were mechanical and electrical products.
Among them, Sichuan's import and export of goods reached 490.66 billion yuan, ranking first in the western region, with a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent, a growth rate 2.8 percentage points higher than that of the whole country; Tibet's foreign trade was the fastest-growing, with a year-on-year increase of 132.4 percent.
With 72% of the country's land area and 27% of the population, under the background of the western development strategy and the construction of the "Belt and Road", the western region has become the "frontier" of opening up from the "periphery" of opening up. At present, there are 6 pilot free trade zones and 40 comprehensive bonded zones in the western region, and the number of China-Europe freight trains accounts for about half of the country's total.
"In the first half of the year, the foreign trade of the western region grew rapidly, which not only reflected the changes in the international trade pattern, but also showed the quality and efficiency of the new driving force for the economic development of the western region." Huang Qinghua said that the main reason for the continuous growth of the scale of foreign trade in the western region lies in the construction of the new land-sea corridor in the western region and its deep integration into the joint construction of the "Belt and Road".
He pointed out that to this end, the western region should first consolidate the new infrastructure and open up international logistics channels, second, it must connect with international economic and trade rules, actively expand diversified markets, and third, it must promote industrial transformation and upgrading and enhance the international competitiveness of products.