Sing "A Tale of Two Cities" to draw a new blueprint

In April 2011, the State Council officially approved the Regional Planning of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone; in May 2015, Chongqing and Sichuan signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening Cooperation between the Two Provinces and Cities to Jointly Build the Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration; in May 2016, the Development Plan for the Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration was issued; in June 2018, Sichuan-Chongqing signed the Action Plan for Deepening Sichuan-Chongqing Cooperation and Deeply Promoting the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt... Nowadays, the "Outline of the Planning plan for the construction of the Twin Cities Economic Circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing Region" (hereinafter referred to as the "Planning Outline") answers the questions of "how to do" the Twin Cities Economic Circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing Region from various dimensions such as macro architecture, system design, and implementation path.

With 1.9% of the country's land area, the Twin Cities Economic Circle in Chengdu-Chongqing region carries 6.9% of the country's permanent population and creates 6.3% of the country's total economic output. Over the years, Sichuan and Chongqing provinces and cities have firmly established the "one game of chess" thinking and integrated development concept, singing the "Tale of Two Cities" and jointly building an economic circle as the greatest common denominator, and creating a high-level model for regional collaborative development in industrial development, project co-construction, and public services.

Industry-city communion

The left hand is connected to Chongqing, the right hand is Chengdu, in the chengdu-Chongqing area of the twin-city economic circle construction blueprint, Sichuan-Chongqing Gaozhu New Area is a typical example of industry-city integration, here is also the only cross-provincial joint construction of new areas in China.

In 2013, the predecessor of the Sichuan-Chongqing Gaozhu New Area, Gaotan Park, started construction in Guang'an Linshui, the original intention of the construction is because it is only 38 kilometers away from Chongqing Jiangbei Airport, which can be used as an ideal area to undertake industrial transfer in Chongqing. If the early ideas and planning are like a small stone falling on the surface of the lake to stir up some ripples, then in 2019, the drastic construction scene here is like a chess piece settled, and one move after another shows the trend of breaking the game. In that year, the number of projects started and put into operation in Gaotan New Area reached a record high, and the park opened the Chongqing telephone area code "023" and opened a passenger shuttle bus directly to chongqing Jurenba Light Rail Station. On December 29, 2020, the two provinces and cities of Sichuan and Chongqing jointly approved the establishment of Sichuan-Chongqing Gaozhu New Area.

Li Jia, director of the Party and Mass Work Center of the Preparatory Committee of the Gaozhu New Area of Sichuan-Chongqing, told reporters that this is not a simple industrial park or industrial park, but a new city of the future, "The policies of Sichuan and Chongqing are 'at your disposal' in the new district, it is high or low, and what policy is conducive to the development of enterprises and the construction of new districts will be according to what policy."

It is not difficult to see that the Sichuan-Chongqing Gaozhu New Area is speeding up the exploration of major reform tasks of moderate separation of economic zones and administrative regions; while the Eastern New Area of Chengdu has become the most important emerging polar core for the development of Chengdu and Chongqing with its extremely strong fan radiation effect.

Draw on white paper, flat land and build a city. Standing in Chengdu Longquan Mountain Urban Forest Park Danjingtai, you can see the landmark buildings such as Tianfu International Airport, Tianfu Olympic Sports City, and Sancha Lake. Since the Sichuan Provincial People's Government approved the establishment of the Chengdu Eastern New Area in April 2020, the construction of this picturesque area has been in full swing.

"The Eastern New Area of Chengdu should form distinctive characteristics that are different from the main urban area of Chengdu and the central city of Chengdu and Chongqing, cultivate pillar industries and leading enterprises, and enhance economic potential." Li Houqiang, deputy director of the Decision-making Advisory Committee of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government and chairman of the Chengdu Federation of Social Sciences, said.

Chengdu Eastern New Area can rely on Tianfu International Airport to build a national airport economic comprehensive pilot zone; implement the demonstration project of multimodal transport of rivers, sea, land and air to create a new channel for international land-sea intermodal transport of "Dongrong Europe"; build an international supply chain operation center to gather multiple functions such as financial services, distribution services, manufacturing and procurement... As the only extra-large-scale new urban development zone in the twin-city economic circle of Chengdu-Chongqing region, Chengdu Eastern New Area has a strong latecomer advantage, which plays an extremely important role in undertaking the spillover of core urban functions and development factors and linking the surrounding areas to support the rise of central Chengdu-Chongqing.

Misalignment, division of labor, complementarity... The construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region has played a strong and powerful role in promoting the industrial development of Sichuan and Chongqing. Focusing on accelerating the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, the two places have jointly established special classes for automobiles and motorcycles, industrial Internet, electronic information and other work to promote the embedded and clustered development of strategic pillar industries, and the global matching rate of the automobile and electronic information industries in the two places has increased to more than 80%. The construction of the modern and efficient agricultural belt in Chengdu and Chongqing, the construction of the western financial center, and the construction of the Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor have achieved remarkable results.

Project co-construction

"Backed" by the Institute of Wireless Energy Transmission Technology of Chongqing University, Chongqing Huachuang Intelligent Science and Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd. has more than 140 authorized invention patents. "Many parks can give policies, land, start-up funds, but we need 'people' more." Zuo Zhiping, general manager of the company, told reporters that the original choice to settle in the Bishan Innovation Ecological Community in the Western (Chongqing) Science City was because in the process of transforming the scientific research achievements, the community could send a senior project manager to solve the problems encountered by the enterprise in management.

What makes many business leaders give a thumbs up is the "speed" and "temperature" of service development in the Western (Chongqing) Science City. By deepening the reform of "decentralization and management of services", the Western (Chongqing) Science City has greatly streamlined the administrative examination and approval matters and compressed the administrative approval time to the greatest extent. In order to better provide services to enterprises, as a strategic platform for planning and building the Western (Chongqing) Science City, Chongqing High-tech Zone uses big data to empower investment promotion, "lock" the needs of enterprises around 13 precise subdivisions of 4 leading industries, and create a good development environment for the construction of Science City. This year, the number of science and technology enterprises in the western (Chongqing) Science City is expected to exceed 1,000, and the number of high-tech enterprises is expected to increase to 235.

There are more and more entrepreneurs who feel the same way as Zuo Zhiping, and the "reservoir" effect of the twin-city economic circle in Chengdu and Chongqing is very obvious.

In terms of talent attraction, in April 2020, Sichuan and Chongqing signed a strategic cooperation agreement on the coordinated development of talents, proposing to establish a regionally integrated talent evaluation system and introduce a series of policy measures such as a talent public service sharing mechanism to provide talent support for the construction of the twin-city economic circle in Chengdu and Chongqing. In terms of major project cooperation and co-construction, with the construction of 4 projects such as tongsui talent co-education park in August this year, the number of 67 major projects with a total investment of 1.57 trillion yuan in 2021 has reached 64, with an operating rate of 95.5%, and a total investment of 178.37 billion yuan has been completed, of which 66.05 billion yuan will be completed this year.

Service sharing

In January this year, the general offices of the two provinces and municipal governments of Sichuan and Chongqing jointly issued the "Action Plan for Convenient Life in the Economic Circle of the Two Cities in Chengdu and Chongqing Region", jointly implementing six convenient life actions of transportation and communications, household registration migration, employment social security, education and culture, medical and health, and housing security, and launching 16 convenient matters to give the people of the two places greater living space, more employment choices, and more close personal relations.

"For people like me who often travel to and from Chengdu and Chongqing, the most convenient mode of transportation is to take the train for more than an hour, and what is more intimate is that the Chengdu-Chongqing Intercity Railway has now launched a 20-time pass card that is valid for 90 days, and you can also reserve seats, and the ticket purchase procedure is much simpler." Yu Zhao, who lives in Taihe 2nd Street, Wuhou District, Chengdu, works for a real estate company and is mainly responsible for business in Sichuan and Chongqing. "Now, the bus card in the main urban areas of Chongqing and Chengdu is universal, which is very convenient!"

On September 26, 2009, the "Harmony" train was opened between Chengdu and Chongqing for the first time, marking the entry of the southwest region into the era of high-speed rail. In August this year, the Chengdu-Chongqing Central High-Speed Railway was approved, the fourth railway connecting the two cities of Chengdu and Chongqing, with a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour, and after the completion of the project, Chengdu to Chongqing can reach 50 minutes. As of the end of June this year, the Chengdu-Chongqing intercity railway had an average of 78.5 pairs and 85,000 passengers per day. The two provinces and cities of Sichuan and Chongqing have also taken the lead in successfully opening 8 inter-provincial intercity bus lines in the country.

In terms of promoting the facilitation of hukou migration, Sichuan and Chongqing have realized the "inter-provincial communication" of all hukou migration between provincial-level jurisdictions. By the end of June this year, Chongqing Municipality and Sichuan Province had handled more than 12,000 and 29,000 cross-provincial "one-stop" household registration migration business respectively.

To promote the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region, Chengdu, as a central city, should play a leading role. Liao Jun, secretary and director of the party group of the Chengdu Municipal Service Management and Network Administration Office, and director of the Office of the Municipal Leading Group for the Construction of the International Business Environment, told reporters that since the signing of the "Cooperation Agreement on Coordinating the Promotion of the Reform and Management of the "Decentralization service" in the Twin Cities Economic Circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing Region" in July 2020, Chengdu has actively promoted the standardization of government services and has carried out in-depth cooperation with Chongqing Municipality in terms of data sharing and utilization, online "one network communication office", and offline off-site handling. "At present, the first batch of 95 items has been fully implemented, and the second batch of 115 items is planned to be implemented by the end of October 2021."

Looking back at the past, the state has given different strategic positioning and development goals to the Chengdu-Chongqing region in different periods, and Sichuan and Chongqing have lived up to the expectations of the people and worked together to firmly promote the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region. With the release of the "Planning Outline", the construction of the twin-city economic circle in the Chengdu-Chongqing region will surely accelerate and achieve results, and form an important growth pole in the western region that will drive the high-quality development of the whole country. (Economic Daily reporter Liu Chang)

Source: Economic Daily