As Guangdong forges ahead in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, where lies its direction?
During his inspection tour of Guangdong, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly called for the province to “create new advantages and achieve new breakthroughs”. This is an epoch – defining question that Guangdong must answer well to make solid strides in this crucial phase of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and it also points the way for Guangdong to scale new heights at a new starting point.
Looking back on Guangdong’s development since the reform and opening – up, it has essentially been a process of constantly breaking through bottlenecks and creating new advantages. In the 15th Five-Year Plan period, this spiral – upward process needs to be further intensified. How can Guangdong keep to the right direction and strive to create new advantages and achieve new breakthroughs?
(I)
Advantages form the cornerstone of development. To create new advantages and achieve new breakthroughs, the primary task is to consolidate and expand existing advantages.
Guangdong boasts the universal advantages enjoyed by the whole country:
Nationally, China has the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, a super – large – scale market, a complete industrial system and abundant human resources. It also has many favorable factors for proactively maneuvering in the international arena and shaping the external environment. China’s economy has a solid foundation, numerous advantages, strong resilience and huge potential. The supporting conditions and fundamental trends that underpin its long – term sound development remain unchanged.
Additionally, Guangdong has its own unique advantages:
- Superimposed advantages from national strategies: Guangdong is presented with major strategic opportunities such as the development of the Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao Greater Bay Area, the building of Shenzhen as a pilot demonstration area for socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the construction of four major platforms including Hengqin, Qianhai, Nansha and Hetao. The intensive layout of facilities like the GBA International Science and Technology Innovation Center, comprehensive national science centers and high – level talent hubs has continuously consolidated the basic and strategic underpinnings for modernization drive.
- Advantages in business environment: Guangdong maintains overall stability and social tranquility, and features a sound market – oriented, law – based and internationalized business environment. According to the latest “10,000 Private Enterprises Evaluate Business Environment” released by the All – China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Guangdong ranked second in the country in terms of business environment scores and first in the entrepreneur reputation vote. Enterprises continue to hold a positive outlook on Guangdong and are willing to invest here.
- Advantages in a vibrant market: Guangdong has topped the country in total economic output for 36 consecutive years and ranked first in regional innovation capability for 9 consecutive years. Over 20 million market entities have taken root here. Nine industrial clusters each with an output value exceeding one trillion yuan are thriving, and 20 strategic industrial clusters are being cultivated as key priorities. Guangdong has become a highly sought – after destination for investment and entrepreneurship both at home and abroad.
- Advantages in demographic vitality: Guangdong has a permanent resident population of 128 million and a real – time population of 150 million in the province. It has been the most populous province in China for 18 consecutive years, the only province with more than one million newborns for 5 consecutive years, and the top province in terms of birth rate for 7 consecutive years. This year, the province launched the “Million Talents Gather in Guangdong” initiative to attract talents from all over the world to settle and develop here.
Furthermore, Guangdong also enjoys advantages in opening – up, comprehensive manufacturing, infrastructure, ecology and culture.
To consolidate and expand existing advantages, all efforts must be made to further enhance these strengths, foster more new advantages on the basis of existing ones, and transform various advantages into tangible results for Guangdong’s high – quality development and modernization drive.
(II)
Weaknesses can also be turned into areas of potential. The key to creating new advantages and achieving new breakthroughs lies in accelerating the addressing of weaknesses and fully unlocking potential.
In the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Guangdong will face profound and complex changes in its development environment. Strategic opportunities coexist with risks and challenges, and there will be a growing number of uncertain and unpredictable factors. While the province has many favorable conditions and positive elements, it also has quite a few weaknesses and areas that need urgent improvement.
Industrial science and technology innovation still confronts some practical difficulties:
China is still constrained by others in some core and key technologies, such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, high – end instruments, basic software, advanced materials and biological manufacturing. The capabilities in basic research and original innovation are relatively weak. The province also lags behind in solving “choke – point” technological problems and filling key gaps in the industrial chain, and the system for transforming scientific research achievements into practical applications needs further improvement.
The unbalanced development between urban and rural areas and among different regions remains a prominent issue:
This is the biggest weakness hindering Guangdong’s high – quality development. In recent years, Guangdong has implemented the “High – Quality Development Project for 100 Counties, 1,000 Towns and 10,000 Villages” to turn this weakness into a growth driver. Initial results have been achieved in the past three years. However, arduous tasks still lie ahead in improving the institutional mechanisms for coordinated regional development and integrated urban – rural development. For instance, the county – level economy needs to be further expanded, the problem of unbalanced regional development has not been completely resolved, there is still room for improvement in the new – type urbanization drive, and the planning and construction of counties, towns and villages need to be further upgraded.
There are also deficiencies in areas such as people’s well – being, work safety, and disaster prevention and mitigation:
Compared with the requirements of building a modern socialist country and the people’s growing needs for a better life, Guangdong still has room for improvement in people’s well – being sectors including employment, education, medical care, elderly care and child care. Meanwhile, work safety accidents and major potential accidents occur from time to time. The province is prone to natural disasters, and the situation of forest fire prevention and fire safety is grim. It still faces considerable pressure in balancing development and security.
To turn weaknesses into strengths, targeted measures must be taken. Efforts should be made to advance basic research and cutting – edge technologies, expand development into county – level regions and marine areas, and make great efforts to lay solid foundations, address weaknesses, strengthen weak links and tap potential. This will help create new development advantages and open up new development space.
(III)
To create new advantages and achieve new breakthroughs, it is also essential to adopt a holistic approach, make coordinated efforts and unlock all possibilities.
Practice has shown that new advantages and breakthroughs are not necessarily entirely new things, and there are no ready – made paths or experiences to follow. Revitalizing traditional industries (just like old trees sprouting new shoots) can also bring about new advantages and breakthroughs, and the integration of various elements can also create new advantages and breakthroughs.
Over the past 40 plus years of reform and opening – up, Guangdong has nurtured large – scale traditional industries and accumulated substantial assets and resources, which contain enormous wealth and potential. These also serve as a solid foundation for Guangdong’s high – quality development and modernization drive. Properly coordinating and utilizing these industries, assets and resources will also enable the province to create new advantages and achieve new breakthroughs.
On one hand, efforts should be made to coordinate the cultivation of new growth drivers and the upgrading of traditional ones.
The development of new growth drivers is built on the basis of traditional ones, and the upgrading of traditional growth drivers requires the impetus from new ones. Moreover, traditional growth drivers can be transformed into new ones through transformation and upgrading, and new growth drivers will become traditional ones with the passage of time and technological innovation. We need to properly handle the three pairs of relationships between stability and progress, new and old, and establishment and abolition. While keeping a close eye on the new stage of economic development and the frontiers of scientific and technological progress, we must unwaveringly take the cultivation of new growth drivers as a key means to build new competitive advantages. At the same time, we should firmly commit to upgrading traditional growth drivers as an important way to boost new growth momentum and enhance overall strength, and actively cultivate new economic growth poles.
On the other hand, it is necessary to coordinate the optimization of incremental growth and the revitalization of stock assets.
Entering the new development stage, the two – way interaction between stock and incremental assets has become increasingly prominent, and their combined efforts to improve resource allocation efficiency have been continuously strengthened. Optimizing incremental growth can create conditions and opportunities for revitalizing stock assets, and revitalizing stock assets can provide space and resources for optimizing incremental growth. The organic integration of the two will help tap development potential and expand development space. Faced with challenges such as rising factor costs, tightening resource and environmental constraints and intensifying international competition, only by pursuing benefits from stock assets and space from incremental growth, and further optimizing the production, distribution, circulation and consumption systems, can Guangdong comprehensively boost development vitality and systematically create new development advantages.
The 15th Five-Year Plan period is a crucial stage for China to lay a solid foundation and make all – round efforts to basically realize socialist modernization, and it is also a critical period for Guangdong to create new advantages and achieve new breakthroughs. In such a critical period, Guangdong must take extraordinary actions and make remarkable achievements!
