Recently, the GDP data of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China were released one after another last year. In 2016, Guangdong’s economic operation was generally stable, with a regional GDP of 7,951.205 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.5%, ranking first in the country for 28 consecutive years.
In the increasingly fierce regional competition, why can Guangdong’s GDP continue to lead the country? Behind the total GDP of 7.95 trillion yuan, what is supporting China’s largest economic province to run all the way?
Improving the quality and efficiency of the real economy, especially intellectual upgrading and accelerating innovation, is considered by experts to be the core password for Guangdong’s GDP to lead for 28 consecutive years. Wang Haifeng, director of the International Economic Comprehensive Research Office of the Institute of Foreign Economic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that Guangdong’s GDP has a relatively high gold content, a high proportion of technology and services, and a high level of openness, and the resource and environmental costs consumed by GDP growth are relatively low.
Regional competition for Guangdong’s economic aggregate is comparable to Spain’s
According to the statistics of the statistics department, the top six economic aggregates of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in 2016 have not changed compared with the past, namely Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Henan and Sichuan.
From the data, the position of Guangdong’s economic aggregate in the first place in the country has been further consolidated. The GDP advantage of Guangdong and Jiangsu has expanded year-on-year, and the growth gap has continued to narrow. In 2016, the economic gap between Guangdong and Jiangsu expanded from 269.617 billion yuan in 2015 to 342.588 billion yuan.
Even on a global scale, Guangdong’s economic aggregate is also in a leading position. Comparing the data of the International Monetary Fund, the reporter found that if Guangdong is regarded as a separate economy, the total economic output of Guangdong will be almost equal to that of Spain in 2015 and 2016, ranking 15th in the world.
Based on the data of 2015 (calculated in RMB), we can find that Guangzhou’s GDP catches up with Singapore, Shenzhen’s GDP catches up with Hong Kong, Foshan’s GDP catches up with Amsterdam, a famous European city, and Dongguan’s GDP surpasses Las Vegas. In terms of economic aggregate, Zhongshan is neck and neck with Geneva, Jiangmen is neck and neck with Edinburgh, and Zhaoqing, which overtakes in corners, is on par with Liverpool, an important town of industrial revolution.
Greater Bay Area and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the world’s four powerful engines, have a seat.
Behind the economic aggregate of 7.95 trillion yuan in Guangdong, the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta have made rapid efforts to optimize their development and become well-deserved "main forces".
If the nine cities of Hong Kong, Macau and the Pearl River Delta are taken as a whole, the total GDP of Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in 2015 will reach 1.24 trillion US dollars, surpassing the Spanish 1.20 trillion US dollars and approaching the Russian 1.32 trillion US dollars. At present, there are three famous Greater Bay Area — — Tokyo Bay Area, new york Bay Area and San Francisco Bay Area, relying on strong financial industry and developed science and technology industry, have extremely high GDP and per capita GDP. Now with Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, there will be four Greater Bay Area in the world.
It is worth noting that a wave of high-end advanced projects is accelerating the assembly from the Pearl River Delta to Guangdong, East and West, and Guangdong is accelerating the integrated development of the Pearl River Delta and Guangdong, East and West. In Heyuan High-tech Zone, more than 180 kilometers northeast of Shenzhen, the first phase of ZTE Heyuan production R&D training base was completed and put into trial operation, adding a new engine to Heyuan’s economic development.
This year, the work report of Guangdong provincial government put forward "9+6" integrated development, which may bring new changes to the regional GDP structure in the future. Guangdong will build a Greater Pearl River Delta Economic Zone consisting of nine cities in the Pearl River Delta and six cities around the Pearl River Delta, namely Shaoguan, Heyuan, Shanwei, Yangjiang, Qingyuan and Yunfu, to promote the integrated development of the Pearl River Delta and the Pearl River Delta region.
What kind of new world will be opened by the integrated development of the Pearl River Delta and Guangdong, East and West?
According to Lin Jiang, deputy director of the Pearl River Delta Research Center of Hong Kong, Macao and Sun Yat-sen University, the most important thing in the development of "9+6" integration is to highlight the "cohesion" of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, make them the core hub of "9+6" integration, play a leading role, coordinate the development and expand the radiation capacity of the Pearl River Delta, and then make the Pearl River Delta the fourth Greater Bay Area economy in the world.
"Predictably, wait ‘ 9+6’ After the vitality is stimulated, Guangdong will continue to lead China’s economic development as a leader for a long time to come. " Wang Haifeng said.
Innovation leads
High-tech enterprises promote Guangdong’s economy to run faster
As a national pillar industry, some high-end equipment in the electronics manufacturing industry has long relied on imports. Today, Shenzhen Dazu Motor Technology Co., Ltd., established in 2005, is breaking this situation.
With a key technology of electronic manufacturing, the domestic market share of Han’s motor-related products is in the forefront of the industry and exported to Europe, America, Japan and other places. "Basically, all the gross profit of the company is invested in research and development. Han’s motor has more than 500 employees, of whom more than 300 are engaged in research and development." Wang Guangneng, co-founder and deputy general manager of Dazu Electric, said.
More and more high-tech enterprises like Han’s Motor are rising rapidly in Guangdong.
Behind the beautiful transcripts of Guangdong’s GDP leading all the way, two figures have attracted people’s attention.
The first data is the number of high-tech enterprises. The Guangdong Innovation and Development Conference held on February 7 this year revealed that in 2016, the number of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong reached 19,857, ranking first in the country.
The number of high-tech enterprises and the total GDP in Guangdong rank first in the country, which shows that the economic growth in Guangdong is not only an increase in quantity, but also an improvement in quality.
Among them, the number of high-tech enterprises in the Pearl River Delta reached 18,880, an increase of 78.8% over 2015. The number of Shenzhen and Guangzhou reached 8037 and 4744 respectively. The stock of high-tech enterprises in Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan and other cities has achieved rapid growth of more than 100%.
The second data is the added value of the private economy. In 2016, the added value of private economy in Guangdong exceeded 4 trillion yuan. According to preliminary accounting, the added value of Guangdong’s private economy reached 4,257.876 billion yuan, an increase of 7.8% over the same period of last year at comparable prices.
Why are these two data important?
In the opinion of experts, this proves that the new kinetic energy of Guangdong’s economic growth is constantly improving, and it also reflects that Guangdong not only leads the country in regional GDP, but also leads the country in structural adjustment.
"The increase in the number of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong reflects the new trend of economic transformation and upgrading." In Wang Haifeng’s view, the combination of the technological guiding force behind the high quantity and the market grasping force behind the private enterprises will bring great energy to generate. "Guangdong’s innovation is enterprise-led innovation, which is also the advantage of Guangdong in leading the country in innovation and entrepreneurship."
(Reporter Zheng Jiaxin Zhang Suquan He Kangjie He Shan Su Yuwei)