Changes of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in the Past 40 Years: From "Pathfinder" to "Mr Key"

A word from Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of reform and opening up, has made Shenzhen go through an extraordinary 40 years.

1979, he proposed to "set aside places" to create special economic zones; 1In August, 980, Shenzhen was approved as one of the first special economic zones in China. It's been stirred for 40 years, and it's a snap of your fingers. Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has developed from a "small fishing village" to an international metropolis today.

In the past 40 years, Shenzhen has developed from a special economic zone into a pilot free trade zone, one of the central cities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and then into a pioneering demonstration zone in Socialism with Chinese characteristics. Its functional orientation has also changed from a "window and experimental field" in the early days of reform and opening up to a high-quality development highland, a demonstration of a city ruled by law, a model of urban civilization, a benchmark for people's livelihood happiness and a pioneer of sustainable development.

Shenzhen is known as "the most influential and best-built special economic zone". What indicators are used to prove the "best construction"?

From 65438 to 0980, Shenzhen's GDP was only 270 million yuan, with a per capita GDP of 835 yuan. By 20 19, Shenzhen's GDP has reached 2,692.7 billion yuan, and its per capita GDP has exceeded 200,000 yuan. In just 40 years, the GDP of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has increased by nearly 1 10,000 times, and the per capita GDP has jumped to the top of the national cities, creating a miracle in the history of world economic development.

There are more than 5,400 special economic zones in the world, and none of them can maintain rapid growth for a long time like Shenzhen. Over the past 40 years, the GDP growth rate of Shenzhen is 4.9 times of the world average and 1.8 times of the national average. This means that in the past 40 years, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has taken nearly five steps for every step taken by the world.

Not only that, among the Fortune Global 500 recently announced, eight companies are from Shenzhen. 2 1 Century Economic Research Institute released the Report on High-quality Urban Development in China in 2020, which also showed that Shenzhen won the three individual championships of comprehensive performance, coordinated development and green development, and the total score of high-quality development ranked first in the country.

Behind the remarkable achievements of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, it is by no means a simple "one skill is the spirit", but the courage and spirit of persistently promoting market-oriented reform in the past 40 years. The Shenzhen miracle just shows the vitality and competitiveness of Socialism with Chinese characteristics's market economy. The significance of exploring the growth code of the Special Economic Zone from a new starting point of 40 years lies not only in solving the mystery of sustained and high economic growth in the Special Economic Zone, but also in how the Special Economic Zone can get ready and start again, and assume the dual mission of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as the core engine and Socialism with Chinese characteristics as the first demonstration zone.

1979, Ni He 'an, then vice captain of Team 4, Division 2, Fourth Navigation Engineering Bureau, Ministry of Communications, led 100 teammates to Shekou, Shenzhen, becoming the first builder of the first industrial park opened to the outside world in China. Ni He 'an's first important task is to blow up the mountain to clear the way, and to tear down a hill that stands in the way between Wuwan and Liuwan in Shekou.

After discussion, the headquarters of Shekou Industrial Zone put forward the cluster blasting construction method, and the heavy responsibility of construction fell on the four teams. He An personally pressed the blast button. With the sound of the first mountain cannon in Shekou, the land of South Guangdong boiled overnight, and excavators roared day and night, which opened the prelude to large-scale economic development.

From Yegong No.1 Road to Yegong No.9 Road, from Taizi Road to Ocean World, Shekou Industrial Zone still bears the imprint of reform and opening up. Although Shekou is small, as the forerunner of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, it has created many "national firsts".

Establish the first real joint-stock limited company, establish the quota over-production reward system, manage the project by project bidding for the first time, realize the commercialization of employee housing, recruit talents for the whole country, take the lead in implementing the full-staff contract system, and call for the establishment of the first domestic joint-stock commercial bank as an enterprise legal person and the first commercial insurance institution founded by enterprises.

In fact, a large number of enterprises bred and started from Shekou Industrial Zone in the early days have grown into world-famous representatives, such as China Merchants Bank, Ping An Insurance, CIMC and Kingdee. ...

Not only Shekou, the gene of eating crabs first penetrated into all aspects of the development of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. The establishment of Shenzhen Stock Exchange (hereinafter referred to as Shenzhen Stock Exchange) is a typical representative. Yu Guogang, one of the main organizers of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and former deputy general manager, recalled that the Shenzhen Stock Exchange risked violating the rules from the day it was born. He vividly compared it to "a husband and a son took out a birth certificate".

It turned out that1May 1990, the preparatory group of Shenzhen Stock Exchange went to Beijing to examine and approve the opening of the market, and did not get the "birth certificate"; Under the decision of Li Hao, then secretary of Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, Shenzhen Stock Exchange took the lead in starting centralized trading in China at 1990 12 1. It was not until April 199 1 that the People's Bank of China issued a "birth certificate" with the approval of the State Council.

Guo Wanda, executive vice president of China (Shenzhen) Research Institute for Comprehensive Development, once asked relevant decision makers about this matter. His response said, "Shenzhen, as a special zone, is to dare to try. This is nothing more than two results. One is that if the Central Committee does not agree, I will close it; Second, the central government scolded me and told me to keep driving. But whatever the outcome, you must try again. "

It is under such pioneering measures that the spirit of "eating crabs" has gradually deepened in the practice of Shenzhen's market economy, running through the whole 40 years.

Take the housing system reform as an example. 1980, Shenzhen began to build Donghu Liyuan, which is the first commercial housing community in China after the reform and opening up. 1987, Shenzhen sounded the "first hammer" of land auction since the founding of New China; Now, Shenzhen started the "second housing reform" on 20 18, and proposed that by 2035, the total number of newly-built talent housing, residential commercial housing and public * * * rental housing should not be less than1000000, exceeding the supply of commercial housing.

Since the establishment of the export processing zone in Shekou Industrial Zone, Shenzhen Special Zone has attracted a large number of Hong Kong capital including the first imported hotel and the first imported processing factory by virtue of the comparative advantages of cheap labor and land, which has quickly opened up the situation of the special zone to the outside world.

This can be seen from a set of data. At the beginning of the establishment of the Special Zone, there were only 1 county-run enterprises and 108 employees in Shenzhen. With the help of the "three to one supplement" processing trade model, Shenzhen has successfully embedded itself into the global electronic information industry chain. By the end of 1994, there were more than 8,000 "three-supply and one-supplement" enterprises in Shenzhen Special Zone, with 1 10,000 employees, and the variety of products has developed from less than 10 to nearly 1000, forming a modern electronic industrial system with audio-visual products as the mainstay.

Take Foxconn as an example. As one of the earliest Taiwan-funded enterprises to enter the mainland, Foxconn set up a factory in Shenzhen from 1988, which witnessed several industrial leaps since Shenzhen's reform and opening up.

Foxconn founder Guo Taiming recalled that Foxconn's first production base in Shenzhen was the computer connector factory in Xixiang, Baoan, Shenzhen. By 2004, it gradually transformed from simple "three supplements" to high-end manufacturing industries such as computers and mobile phones. With the strategy of labor bonus, scale, high efficiency and low gross profit, it has rapidly risen to become the largest "foundry giant" in the world.

Tang Jie, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) and former deputy mayor of Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, believes that "focusing on foreign investment, focusing on processing and assembly, and focusing on export" has become the most concise policy proposition for Shenzhen to join the global division of labor system.

However, in the 1990s, with the weakening of the policy advantages of special economic zones, the sequelae such as high energy consumption and high pollution of "three subsidies" enterprises began to appear, and industrial transformation was imperative. At the end of 1993, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone issued a resolution to stop registering new "three to one supplement" enterprises, which also marked the end of Shenzhen's development of export processing trade by using low-cost factors.

In order to cultivate emerging industries, Shenzhen clearly formulated the industrial development strategy of "taking high-tech industries as the guide, taking advanced industries as the foundation and taking the tertiary industry as the pillar" in the Eighth Five-Year Plan, and put forward the goal of "building Shenzhen into a base for the development and production of high-tech industries" to promote the development of six leading industries, including electronics, petrochemicals, light industry, textiles, new building materials and precision machinery.

A story told by the SAR is that during the period of 1999, Ma, the founder of Tencent, won the key first venture capital of $2.2 million at the first China International Hi-tech Fair. This fair of scientific and technological achievements, which will be called "the first exhibition of science and technology in China" in the future, has become the beginning of adjusting and optimizing the industrial structure of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in the new century.

After "changing cages for birds" to eliminate low-end backward production capacity and technological innovation to promote industrial transformation and upgrading, Shenzhen has become a typical representative of the innovation and development of "three new and one high" (new economy, new format, new model and high-tech enterprises).

Since 2009, Shenzhen has successively issued and implemented seven strategic emerging industry plans and supporting policies, including biology, internet, new energy, new materials and cultural creativity, to create new economic growth points. By the end of 20 19, there were more than 30,000 high-tech innovative enterprises in Shenzhen, and the total added value of strategic emerging industries was10/551100 million yuan. The added value of its advanced manufacturing industry accounts for 72. 1% of the regulatory industry, and the added value of high-tech manufacturing industry also reaches 67.3%.

As the "vanguard" of reform and opening up, Shenzhen has developed from a border "small fishing village" with a population of just over 300,000 to a modern international metropolis with a population of more than 20 million. The Secret Behind can focus on the word "people".

From the beginning of the city, Shenzhen was a city open to talents. Take the lead in breaking the traditional geographical and institutional restrictions, attract talents from all over the country, and gather the strength of the whole country for construction. As early as the establishment of special economic zones, many strategies to attract talents attracted national attention. Including rural household registration in Shenzhen, and family members have no jobs, Shenzhen arranges jobs; Allocate housing for engineers and senior engineers; Hire talents with high salary, stay free after the expiration of employment, and so on.

For example, Shekou, 198 1, openly recruited talents for the whole country, which broke the practice of transferring cadres from higher authorities and initiated the reform of personnel system in new China. 1983, Shekou took the lead in implementing the salary reform plan, and determined the salary according to ability and contribution regardless of rank and position.

For a time, it attracted talents from all over the country to fly southeast, and many people were summoned by the vigorous vitality of the SAR. Xu, who gave up the "iron rice bowl" and came to Shenzhen, is one of them.

1990, Xu went to work in an accounting firm in Shenzhen with pension insurance of 368 yuan. Soon after, he resigned again, borrowed 5000 yuan to buy a 286 computer, and founded Shenzhen Anpu Computer Technology Co., Ltd., which is the famous Kingdee Software Company in the future.

According to incomplete statistics, during the period of 1997- 1999, only the Shenzhen talent market received job seekers from all over the country, with more than 3.5 million people. 1980 At the beginning of the establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, there was only one tractor mechanic and one veterinarian in Shenzhen. Today, this number has exceeded 2 million, and the number of scientific and technological workers in Shenzhen has increased by nearly 6,543,800 times in 40 years.

It is not difficult to remind people of the well-known slogan "Shenzhen people are coming". Some scholars have linked Shenzhen's innovative temperament with its immigrant characteristics, explaining why the "city of immigrants" can become a city of innovation. "Most people who immigrated to Shenzhen in the early days abandoned their original stable life and were willing to bear the uncertainty brought by migration to meet their high expectations for the future. This cultural trait is particularly suitable for innovation in high-tech fields with it as the background. "

Over the past 40 years, the resident population in Shenzhen has increased by about 42 times. Until now, Shenzhen has adopted a loose household registration policy, and there is no restriction on the settlement of college education or above. Shenzhen revealed in the 2020 government work report that in 2065438+2009, the city introduced 280,000 new talents.

Dai Ming, a professor at the Hong Kong and Macao Economic Research Institute of Jinan University's Special Economic Zone, worked as a researcher and R&D minister in Shenzhen Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone from 65438 to 0999 to 2004, and was quite familiar with the development of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

In his view, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was once a "four noes" city at the beginning of its establishment-there was no heavy chemical industry foundation, no major national projects, no direct investment from large western multinational companies, and no carrying capacity of resources and environment. Why did Shenzhen achieve rapid rise?

Many scholars believe that the rise of Shenzhen benefits from its geographical advantages and proximity to Hong Kong. Some scholars believe that this is due to the huge dividends brought by policy advantages, tax incentives and land security; Some scholars have summarized it as an effective market for the government.

Deming believes that location theory, policy theory and master planning theory all have some truth, but they are all out of focus. Among many coastal and border special economic zones, the success of Shenzhen is not unrelated to the institutional innovation behind it.

For example, after 1992 Deng Xiaoping's speech in the south, all parts of the country came to visit and study in special economic zones, and the relevant regulations of private technology enterprises gradually affected the whole country, and private technology enterprises began to blossom everywhere in the country.

As early as February 1987, the Shenzhen Municipal Government promulgated the Interim Provisions on Encouraging Scientific and Technological Personnel to Establish Private Scientific and Technological Enterprises, which proposed for the first time in China that scientific and technological personnel can invest in shares with their own industrial property rights such as cash, objects, patents, proprietary technology and trademark rights, and get their due dividends and bonuses.

This means that the recognition of the value of intellectual property rights has directly brought a wave of entrepreneurship represented by Huawei, and also laid the institutional and institutional foundation for the development of high-tech industries and the improvement of innovation ability in Shenzhen.

Zhang Siping, president of Shenzhen Innovation and Development Research Institute, agrees. He said that since the 1990s, Shenzhen has issued a series of policies to develop high technology. For example, establish and improve different levels of financial service system, talent service system, high-tech trading market system, regional service system based on high-tech park, and supporting market system of high-tech industrial products represented by Huaqiang North.

"It is precisely because of the above-mentioned all-round government system innovation service system that it has provided important support for the continuous development and growth of Shenzhen's high-tech." Zhang Siping said.

Not only that, Shenzhen has become the source of institutional innovation, and many institutional reforms have been pushed to the whole country. According to the statistics of the Standing Committee of Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress (20 17), more than one third of the legal and normative documents formulated in Shenzhen in the past 25 years were tried before the national and local legislation. These laws and regulations not only protect the development of Shenzhen, but also provide a reference blueprint for the whole country.

For example, this year, the Standing Committee of Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress plans to submit 29 new legislative items for deliberation, including 4 new regulations/kloc-0. Among them, the personal bankruptcy system is "breaking the ice" in Shenzhen, and technology enterprises are expected to implement "the same share but different rights". Behind the legislative exploration in Shenzhen is the background of the city's reform.

The 40th anniversary of the establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone is also a crucial year for the construction of pilot demonstration zones in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Shenzhen. Many scholars have discussed how to look at the future development of Shenzhen.

Experts interviewed believe that on the track of becoming a global benchmark city, if you don't advance, you will retreat, and if you advance slowly, you will retreat. Constantly promoting system innovation and social governance modernization is a new mission entrusted to Shenzhen by the state. As the frontier of reform and opening up and the highland of scientific and technological innovation, Shenzhen has a strong ability to develop dividends and continuously create dividends, and should contribute to the exploration and supply of China's programs. I believe this is also the original intention of the central authorities to set up Shenzhen as the first demonstration area in Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Guo Wanda said that in the 40-year development process, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has experienced twists and turns, but the status of "Mr. Key" has never changed.

During the period of 1992, with the establishment of Pudong New Area, China formed a new opening pattern of coastal, riverside, border and inland cities. At one time, the argument that "the SAR is not a SAR" was rampant until 1995.

Almost at the same time, Shenzhen began to stop registering "three supplements and one supplement" enterprises, and clearly stated in the Eighth Five-Year Plan that Shenzhen should be built into a high-tech industrial development and production base, once again leading the transformation of the national industrial structure. Facts have proved that most of the national industrial transformation in the later period borrowed from the reform experience of Shenzhen.

In 2002, an article "Shenzhen, who abandoned you" once again pushed Shenzhen to the forefront, and "industrial relocation" became the focus of national hot discussion for a time.

Shenzhen began to take the initiative to face a new round of transformation and vigorously promoted the "cage for birds". In a few years, even more than 1.6 thousand enterprises left Shenzhen and ushered in a large number of innovative technology enterprises. From traditional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing, Shenzhen is once again at the forefront of the country.

Fan Gang, vice president of China Economic Reform Society, thinks that the SAR model may be copied by others, but the SAR function will not. Its most fundamental point is to innovate and try first. In particular, under the superposition of the special economic zones, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Socialism with Chinese characteristics pilot demonstration zones, Shenzhen will continue to play the role of special economic zones and carry out pilot demonstrations in all directions.

The Opinions on Supporting Shenzhen to Build Socialism with Chinese characteristics Experimental Demonstration Zone issued by the Central Committee and the State Council clearly stated that by 2025, Shenzhen's economic strength and development quality will be in the forefront of the world, its R&D investment intensity and industrial innovation ability will be world-class, its cultural level will be greatly improved, its public services and ecological environment quality will reach the international advanced level, and it will become a modern, international and innovative city.

Cao Wenlian, vice president of China Economic Reform Society, believes that the reason why the central government chose Shenzhen as the first demonstration area is based on its unique geographical location, development foundation, accumulated reform experience, talents and institutional advantages.

Standing at the new starting point of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of special economic zones, the development of Shenzhen has also entered a new historical stage. How to continue to play the leading role of China's scientific and technological innovation, rebuild Huawei and Tencent in the new era, and explore China's plan for social governance modernization still needs constant reform.

(Author: Li Zhen, Dolly)