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Where huge opportunities are the ‘new normal’
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FOR Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province and a bellwether of western China, the phrase “new normal” means something more dynamic and exciting than it sounds.
“It lands us at a new starting point,” said Guo Qizhou, chairman of Chengdu Commerce Commission. “New normal means a state that will initiate new reforms for Chengdu while more growth opportunities are expected to emerge from faster economic restructuring.”
The year of 2014 marked a significant step forward for Chengdu, a poster city of the development in interior areas of China. Last year, Chengdu’s gross domestic product surpassed 1 trillion yuan (US$164 billion) for the first time in history — up 8.9 percent from a year earlier. In comparison, the national average growth rate was 7.4 percent.
Liu Zhong, chief economist at Chengdu Statistics Bureau, said Chengdu has officially joined the ranks of wealthy cities in China.
“The city’s strong economic fundamentals, together with a number of national strategies in its interest, have paved the way for the city to sustain a growth momentum of medium to high speed,” Liu said.
As a core city in western China, Chengdu is well positioned to develop emerging industries and services of strategic importance for the region. Meanwhile, Chengdu is at the center of China’s new growth blueprint including the plan to revive the ancient Silk Road and a new round of “Go West” policies to unlock further economic potential in western China.
Li You, a national political adviser, said one prominent advantage of Chengdu is that the city is not alone — it is surrounded by fast urbanized peer cities that have the potential to attract investors through the offering of massive business opportunities and relatively low labor costs. They will also become attractive for residents as well because decent jobs and comfortable lives will come along with the investment.
“Chengdu belongs to Sichuan, a dynamic province that is considered a new growth engine for the country,” Li said.
“The city has the strength to lead others in the region on the path toward quality growth while coordinate them to raise the comprehensive competitiveness of the region.”
It is possible that one day, migrant workers will no longer be an occupation for people in Sichuan — they will choose to stay at hometown because it offers the same even better working opportunities like Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, and because it is a place they feel at home.
Metroplex
To make it happen, Li said Chengdu is mapping out a forward-looking plan with particular deliberation on the design of Chengdu’s industrial structure that can coordinate with the growth of nearby cities.
Actually, it has been put on the government work agenda. Last year, Sichuan Province unveiled a document on the development of a metroplex, or a city cluster, with Chengdu taking a central role and cities including Mianyang, Deyang, Suining, Meishan, Ya’an, Ziyang and Leshan being involved.
Metroplex — a word coined from combining metropolitan and complex — is not a new idea. It was formally created in 1972 and referred to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the United States in particular at the very beginning. Now the idea has spread around the world, and in China, it has counterparts such as Yangtze River Delta region with Shanghai as a core and Pearl River Delta region with Guangzhou as a core.
The metroplex with Chengdu at the center is designed to cover 780,000 square kilometers where 35.8 million people lived as permanent residents by the end of 2013. The economic output in the area amounted to 1.59 trillion yuan last year, according to the document.
“Good distribution of work is key to coordinated growth,” Li said.
In the document, the region will team up in the construction of infrastructure, including transport and communication system, to integrate the hardware network construction, which paves the way for further cooperation.
Meanwhile, all cities will have their flagship industries. Like new generation information technology for Chengdu, Mianyang, Leshan and Suining; equipment manufacturing for Deyang, Chengdu, Ziyang and Meishan; while the automobile industry for Chengdu, Mianyang and Ziyang.
“The advanced manufacturing industries have very long supply chains that Chengdu alone can’t digest,” Li said. “It is also in the interest of Chengdu to see faster growth of nearby cities.”
The blueprint will also make Chengdu more attractive for foreign investors, Li added, for its enhanced competitiveness to handle business opportunities.
Since Chengdu hosted the Fortune Global Forum and the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention in 2013, the city has seen more foreign companies swarming into the city. With the vision of a metroplex being established, another economic takeoff of Chengdu and Sichuan should be in sight.
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