Why did Greater Bay Area lose to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta?

Since ancient times, many areas with unique geographical advantages are often favored by more people. Among them, marina bay District is the most popular area in modern international society.

With its geographical advantages and convenient international transportation, marina bay District can often become the economic gateway of one party or even a country, and get rich benefits from the huge trade throughput.

Among the four major ports in the world, new york and San Francisco are the only ports in the United States, and Tokyo Port is also impressively listed. The last port is Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China.

Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is located in the Pearl River Delta in the middle of Guangdong Province, China. Although Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area started late, it has rapidly developed into a world-famous region with its previous accumulation and advantages. In 2020, the total GDP of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will exceed 1 1 trillion, and about 5% of the country's population will create the national GDP of 1 1%.

Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area consists of the Pearl River Delta plus Hong Kong and Macao, so in a sense, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is an upgraded version of the Pearl River Delta.

Relying on the original industrial base of the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area develops industrial integration and upgrading, with the goal of becoming a national demonstration city group and a global economic growth point.

However, judging from the recent data and materials, Greater Bay Area has not attracted the investment and settlement of many high-tech enterprises as most people expected, but Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei has always maintained a high attraction; The Yangtze River Delta still ranks first in GDP.

It seems that Greater Bay Area, which had high hopes, lost to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta. However, judging the rise and fall of such a large urban agglomeration from one aspect is too extreme, so we need to analyze Greater Bay Area as a whole to determine whether it is as it seems.

Although the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is very short, this region has been prosperous for thousands of years, so it is necessary to further understand the reasons and problems of its prosperity by reviewing the evolution history of the Pearl River Delta region.

In ancient times, it used to be the sea, but later, due to sediment deposition in the estuary, a large area of fertile land was formed. In the pre-Qin period, few people lived here.

After Qin unified Nanling area, hundreds of thousands of immigrants were sent here from the Central Plains to thrive. Due to the local sea, suitable climate, fertile soil and rich products, a prosperous town developed rapidly.

Until the Qing Dynasty, all the dynasties regarded the Pearl River Delta as a great resource of the Central Plains and managed this place wholeheartedly. After the Qing Dynasty closed its doors to the outside world, the 13th Guangzhou Bank became the only foreign port in China, and instead of being poisoned by the closed-door policy, it further expanded its foreign trade.

After Hong Kong was ceded to Britain by the Qing government, it gradually gained the ability to communicate with developed capitalist countries such as China and Britain, and became the only channel for such communication. Because the Pearl River Delta region is close to Hong Kong and has a good economic foundation, it has undertaken investment and construction in Hong Kong and made great progress.

From 65438 to 0994, the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee clearly put forward the goal of building the "Pearl River Delta Economic Zone" for the first time. In the same year, Chia Wei Woo, then president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, put forward the idea of "benchmarking San Francisco and building a deep port area". The first of the two has been put on the agenda and put into practice, and the other is only discussed in academic circles.

This is because Hong Kong and Macao have not yet returned to the embrace of the motherland, so the plan to connect Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which have risen since the reform and opening up, with Hong Kong and Macao can only be a pipe dream.

The state and Guangdong Province have invested in the construction of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, and gradually formed a "Greater Pearl River Delta" supported by three new urban areas: Guangfozhao+Qingyuan, Shenguanhui+Shanwei, Heyuan and Zhujiang+Yangjiang.

As the Pearl River Delta started from the agricultural economy at the earliest, its industrial system experienced a transformation process from formation to perfection. In the new century, the Pearl River Delta region has become one of the most important processing and manufacturing bases in China, and its electronic information enterprise groups are particularly developed.

Although the Pearl River Delta has a very complete industrial system, under the pattern that international trade is becoming more and more important in the new era, many deficiencies are still exposed. After the return of Hong Kong and Macao, the competitiveness of the Pearl River Delta in foreign trade appears to be somewhat insufficient. Export-oriented is the biggest feature of the Pearl River Delta economy. Once there are shortcomings in this area, problems will follow.

In this case, the country is keenly aware of the problems existing in the Pearl River Delta, so Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's plan was really put forward. In 20 16, the State Council issued a special opinion for this purpose, and clearly put forward the requirement that Shenzhen and Guangzhou join hands with Hong Kong and Macao to build a world-class urban agglomeration.

Soon, the relevant development plans and plans are gradually improved, and a brand-new Pearl River Delta has a complete blueprint, which is in the process of realization. Greater Bay Area has replaced the Pearl River Delta and become the three Greater Bay Area urban agglomerations in China alongside Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta.

Greater Bay Area is inseparable from the original Pearl River Delta. Although there are many similarities, there are great differences in internal structure and operation rules.

The Pearl River Delta is a window to the outside world and a model for economic development built by the mainland, while Hong Kong and Macao are another port of one country, two systems and a pragmatic new breakthrough.

Greater Bay Area, which combines two social systems and two regions, has become an important hub for deepening the relationship between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao.

In the past review of Greater Bay Area, we can see that Greater Bay Area has several serious drawbacks, which are difficult to compare with Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations in some aspects.

Among these aspects, the most criticized is the concentration of unicorn enterprises. As an important reference index for the development of economy, especially the new economic model, unicorn enterprises have been used to rank cities, urban agglomerations and countries over the years.

In the ranking of global unicorn enterprises in 2020, there are more than 500 global unicorn enterprises, of which the United States and China each account for more than 200. Of the more than 200 households in China, 93 are exclusively owned by Beijing, 47 by Shanghai, 20 by Shenzhen and 20 by Hangzhou, and all other cities are less than double digits.

Unicorn enterprises have always been favored by cities because of their brand-new economic management model and huge investment potential. Generally speaking, any unicorn has a bright future and can greatly promote the development of urban economy.

Therefore, the choice of unicorn enterprises to settle down reflects the attractiveness of the city to enterprises to some extent. The total number of all unicorn enterprises in Greater Bay Area cannot even exceed that in Beijing, so many experts judge that Greater Bay Area does not have the expected development potential.

Why is it difficult for Greater Bay Area to attract enough unicorn enterprises? Is this land, which has been prosperous for thousands of years, supported by dual domestic and international markets and two-level policies, really overvalued?

In fact, the number of unicorn enterprises cannot completely determine the future development of a city. Many countries in the world, such as Tokyo, London and Seoul, have few unicorn enterprises, but who can deny their strength?

Unicorn enterprises do not choose Greater Bay Area as their headquarters for the following reasons.

First, the economic scale is not strong enough. Unicorn enterprises have a high valuation, but they have been established for a short time and are not listed. Generally speaking, they lack enough start-up funds.

Therefore, the capital scale of a city is a very important reference factor for unicorn enterprises to choose their foothold. If they want to develop and go public, they need to find a place where they can spend enough money to support them.

In 2020, Beijing's total capital has exceeded 18 trillion yuan, which is equivalent to Hong Kong and Guangzhou in the same period. More crucially, the influence of the total amount of urban funds on the attractiveness of cities is not just as simple as one plus one equals two, otherwise the comparison items between cities will be lost.

In the same period, Shenzhen only had a total capital of 9.4 trillion. According to the growth rate of local economic development, it will take more than ten years for Shenzhen to catch up with Beijing now. Greater Bay Area's economic development is mainly supported by Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau. Except Guangzhou, the development history of the other three cities is very short.

In other words, although Greater Bay Area had abundant capital accumulation in the past, it did not belong to the accumulation of the new economic model, and Greater Bay Area was still in a critical period of economic transformation.

Hong Kong is a good example. In the past, Hong Kong was several grades ahead of the mainland because of the welfare of capitalist development, but with the reform and opening up, Hong Kong has been overtaken by many cities in the mainland.

Secondly, Greater Bay Area lacks sufficient intellectual support. Looking at the educational resources of all cities in Greater Bay Area, only Gangsui has some famous universities.

Among the newly selected 42 double-class universities, there are 5 in Greater Bay Area and 8 in Beijing alone.

There are many world-renowned universities in Beijing, such as Peking University, Tsinghua and People's Congress, as well as high-tech enterprise clusters such as Zhongguancun. The Yangtze River Delta region is supported by universities such as Zhejiang University and Fudan University. Comparatively speaking, the university construction in Greater Bay Area has a long way to go.

It has been generally recognized that the future competition is talent competition, and excellent human resources can promote the development of science, culture, technology, education and other levels, and bring endless benefits to the progress of cities and countries.

Why can Silicon Valley in the United States last for a long time and become the most prosperous region in the world? An important reason is that Silicon Valley attracts talents from other top universities in the world, such as Tsinghua.

Greater Bay Area can't train enough local talents, and there are no places like Silicon Valley and Zhongguancun to attract other top talents, so its development is greatly limited.

Based on this situation, Greater Bay Area recently put forward the goal of building a Bay Area University in 20 19, and it is expected that this university will start enrolling students in 2023. This big project with a total investment of 654.38+0 billion yuan will provide a platform for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's in-depth cooperation.

However, in order to realize the agglomeration of regional scientific and technological innovation, in addition to world-class universities, it is necessary to build a complete industrial ecological system, so that talents can form a front line from training to exerting value.

Dongguan has large electronic technology enterprises such as Huawei, Siemens, oppo and vivo. Therefore, it is undoubtedly an excellent arrangement to build the Bay Area University and cultivate local talents with strong stickiness, which can build this system to the most comprehensive and complete.

Finally, Greater Bay Area's political function is weak, and it is difficult to achieve the highest efficiency in management. As the capital of China, Beijing has the highest administrative functions. Whether it is supervision and management or examination and approval, local enterprises can improve their operating efficiency invisibly.

In this regard, we can make reference to the shian held by South Korea. As the newly-built political capital of South Korea, shian has not attracted many enterprises to settle in.

The reason is that although Seon city has undertaken some government agencies, Seoul still maintains absolute control, so this decentralized function will not reduce the burden on enterprises and officials, but will increase the redundancy of work. Although Beijing is dominated by state-owned enterprises, many private enterprises also aim to operate in Beijing because they have great administrative advantages.

In addition, the largest domestic media such as Xinhua News Agency and CCTV are all in Beijing, and with the influence of the capital, their popularity is irreplaceable.

Generally speaking, these weaknesses of Greater Bay Area are scattered in many aspects, such as economy, politics, culture and technology. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta regions are slightly better than Greater Bay Area, but these aspects have been properly solved in the future planning. Therefore, there is no need to criticize Greater Bay Area because of its one-sided disadvantage. The rise of Greater Bay Area with multiple guarantees is inevitable.

Greater Bay Area has a completely different structure from other Bay Area urban agglomerations. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has formed a system with Beijing as the single core and Tianjin and other cities in a vault shape; The Yangtze River Delta also relies heavily on Shanghai.

However, Greater Bay Area is one of the four major cities in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. This is not only a political breakthrough, but also a rare special case in the history of urban development.

In 20 15, the State Council proposed to use the economic radiation capacity of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta to comprehensively promote the Maritime Silk Road. Greater Bay Area has a very important strategic position in the realization of the Belt and Road Initiative and can play a huge role.

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was opened to traffic in 2065438+2008. This extraordinary miracle shows the determination and perseverance of the new China in building Greater Bay Area. A bridge across the north and south, moat into a thoroughfare.

This step-by-step planning and design shows that the country is making efforts for the development of Greater Bay Area in an orderly manner.

Therefore, we have every reason to believe that Greater Bay Area will become a new urban agglomeration with four development goals: innovation center, deep cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao, Belt and Road support, and livable and business-friendly ecological circle.

In the next decade, Greater Bay Area will gradually make up for its own shortcomings, keep pace with other world-class urban agglomerations, and create its own characteristics.