The formation of the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration is the most prominent urbanization process in China since the reform and opening up, and it has obvious Hongkong effect. Some commentators predict that the urban agglomerations of Hong Kong, Macao and the Pearl River Delta will be further integrated and become the "Pearl River Estuary Urban Agglomeration". Looking back on the process of urbanization in this region, we can see that industrial layout is the driving force of urbanization development, guided by national macro-policies, and inevitably brought into the general trend of economic globalization and regional integration.
Industry-driven urbanization
With the development of urbanization, rural labor forces gather in cities and towns. As david smith said, the number of urban population growth actually "means the story of thousands of immigrants fighting poverty." "Farmers first move forward in order to make a living. At the beginning of reform and opening-up, township enterprises were generally regarded as the main way to increase farmers' income and solve the gap between urban and rural areas. Township enterprises have mushroomed in small towns. Mr Fei Xiaotong gave a speech in Hongkong in July, 1984, entitled "The Social Significance of the Development of Small Towns in China". He enthusiastically introduced the new mode of "staying at home" created by farmers in Jiangsu in the first five years: "Farmers do not change their residence or household registration, they go to work in factories, shops and other institutions in the town or village during the day, and go home for a temporary stay at night, or stay in the town for a short time alone. He pointed out that small towns can become "reservoirs" between urban and rural areas and absorb a large number of population transfers.
Mr Fei Xiaotong quoted the old saying that "Japan is a market in China": In the past, farmers sold their products, and it took half a day to walk from their homes to the market, and then they couldn't go back the same day. Therefore, Zhou Li Di Guan said that "there is a city in five miles", which is the distance to go. Mr. Fei saw in southern Jiangsu in the 1980s that the transportation from rural areas to towns has become more and more convenient, and it can be reached by bike. "Bicycles can travel 10 km per hour, but now the distance between the two market towns in southern Jiangsu is only 15 to 20 km. The spatial layout of the town is no longer limited by the walking distance, but the range that can be covered by cycling.
Township enterprises have brought prosperity to small towns, and farmers working in cities around them have "left their homes". Later, with the continuous improvement of traffic conditions, the adjustment of policies and the change of people's consciousness, rural residents soon broke through the scope of activities around towns and villages. They are not limited by the riding distance, and take trains, long-distance buses and various means of transportation to go out to "work" far from their hometown, and they have launched a large-span flow, which has merged into a spectacular tide of migrant workers. Migrant workers have been away from their homes for a long time. Although it is not counted as the registered population in the place of employment, the number of migrant workers staying in the field for a long time far exceeds the labor absorbed by nearby township enterprises. Therefore, private enterprises have gained more human resources. As for the largest number of migrant workers, it is foreign-funded enterprises rather than township enterprises. Therefore, in the past 20 years, the fastest development of urbanization is not the southern Jiangsu area that Mr. Fei Xiaotong visited for a long time, but the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, two highly export-oriented coastal areas. Especially, the Pearl River Delta, which is adjacent to Hong Kong, has led the national economic growth rate with the development mode of "two ends outside". With this growth, a densely populated urban area has been formed, which is also commonly known as "urban sprawl".
Hong Kong is a modern metropolis at the mouth of the Pearl River, a free port and an independent customs territory. It has been rated as the freest economic system in the world for many years, with a high degree of openness and extensive international contacts. At the beginning of China's reform and opening-up, the industrial and commercial circles in Hong Kong took the lead in moving the manufacturing industry northward, and combined with the resource advantages in the Mainland, they quickly expanded their production scale. Then, according to the overseas market demand, we will continue to organize production and procurement in the Pearl River Delta region, and cooperate to provide financing and production services.
Combined with Hong Kong businessmen's investment and industrial transfer, a large number of rural laborers gathered in the Pearl River Delta from all directions to become migrant workers and "working girls". Before the reform and opening up, the population growth rate of the Pearl River Delta was lower than that of Guangdong Province and even the whole country. In the past two decades, due to the investment of Hong Kong capital, the Pearl River Delta has been rapidly urbanized and the foreign population has grown rapidly. In 2003, migrant workers accounted for about 45% of the total population in the Pearl River Delta. It is predicted that by 2005, the urbanization level of the Pearl River Delta will reach about 60%-this is based on the statistics of registered population, and the urbanization level will reach about 80% according to the actual urban resident population. By the end of 2005, Hong Kong businessmen had set up more than 80,000 enterprises in Guangdong, employing10 million people [7]. Driven by the export-oriented economy, the urbanization level of Guangdong Province rose from 1982 to 19.8% and reached 55% in 2000, the highest in China.
As far as Hong Kong is concerned, in the planning and operation of connecting mainland production areas with overseas markets, the economy has further developed, the status of traditional commercial centers and shipping centers has been upgraded, and the trade volume handled has continued to grow. In 2004, the total value of Hong Kong's foreign trade was HK$ 4 1 26.5 billion, equivalent to 365,438+09% of Hong Kong's GDP in that year. In this process, Hong Kong has also become an international financial center. By the end of 2003, the stock of foreign direct investment in Hong Kong at market value reached US$ 339.6 billion, equivalent to 265,438+04% of Hong Kong's GDP that year. Among them, the total accumulated direct investment in the mainland has reached 250 billion US dollars. The direct investment in Guangdong alone reached 1000 billion US dollars, accounting for 70% of its foreign investment.
The emergence of the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration coincides with the economic transformation of Hong Kong, which embodies the author of Global Cities, Szaszky Ya? Sassen once said "fundamental interaction"-the higher the degree of global economic integration, the more core functions will be gathered in a few locations, and "the geographical distribution of economic activities will create the need to strengthen centralized control and management". [1 1] The planning and management of the global supply chain all over the country are very complicated, which requires the support of various professional services and the gathering of a group of high-quality knowledge talents. Decentralized production and centralized management complement each other. Sassen also stressed that it is necessary to go beyond the dichotomy between manufacturing and service industries and realize that "world cities" are also production locations. With a huge and complex organizational structure, Sassen manages many scattered factories, offices and marketing networks to provide highly specialized services, innovative financial services and market development. The function of management and control is concentrated in megacities.
"three-hour economic circle"
As mentioned above, in ancient times, "Japan and China were the city" was limited to walking distance; The layout of township enterprises in southern Jiangsu inspected by Fei Xiaotong in the 1980s was limited to the distance of bicycles. In contrast, the emerging urban agglomerations in the Pearl River Delta are linked by modern means of transportation, and their spatial layout is restricted by the so-called "magic three hours". The largest part of foreign investment in the Pearl River Delta comes from Hong Kong. A survey of the proprietors and senior managers of these Hong Kong-funded enterprises shows that they generally only invest in places that can be reached within three hours by car from Hong Kong, so as to ensure that they can return to Hong Kong the same day after visiting the factory in the morning. [12] Therefore, with Hong Kong as the center, there is a "three-hour economic circle".
Under the influence of the "three-hour economic circle", the development of the east and west sides of the Pearl River has also shown an obvious gap. Before the reform and opening up, the GDP of Zhongshan and Zhuhai on the west bank of the Pearl River was slightly higher than that of Shenzhen and Dongguan on the east bank. The population on both sides of the strait is almost the same,19801300,000-1500,000. However, after more than 20 years of development, Shenzhen and Dongguan are directly connected with Hong Kong, and their economies are growing rapidly. However, the transportation links between the west bank of the Pearl River and Hong Kong are not convenient, which is beyond the scope of the "three-hour economic circle". As a result, by 2004, the GDP of the former was 3.9 times that of the latter. Because there are a lot of jobs in the two cities along the eastern coast to attract migrant workers, the population has also increased several times as much as that in the western coast: in 2000, the combined population of Shenzhen and Dongguan reached13.5 million, while that of Zhongshan and Zhuhai was 3.6 million. (See table) The planned Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge can greatly shorten the travel time between the east and west sides and bring it into the "three-hour economic circle".
Comparison between the East Coast and the West Coast of the Pearl River in 2005
1980
1990
2000
Human population
(millions)
2002
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
(RMB 100 million)
Human population
(millions)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
(RMB 100 million)
Human population
(millions)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
(RMB 100 million)
Shenzhen
+Dongguan
1.45
9.74
3.400
20 1.0
13.50
2929.7
Zhongshan
+Zhuhai
1.38
10. 10
1.835
85.0
3.60
822.0
It is of course in line with economic laws for Hong Kong businessmen to invest and transfer industries to the Pearl River Delta within the "three-hour economic circle". Hong Kong is close to the Pearl River Delta, and the price levels of the two places are quite different. "No place in the world has such a big price gap." Therefore, while attracting investment from Hong Kong businessmen, the Pearl River Delta also attracts consumption from Hong Kong people, including buying a house. Shenzhen, Dongguan and other places have become the backyards of Hong Kong people's weekend vacations, as well as places to buy cheap goods and services. Therefore, the rapid urbanization here is driven by both production and consumption.
The Pearl River Delta, which used to be fertile farmland, has experienced rapid urbanization in the past two decades, and Dongguan is the most typical one. Dongguan lies between Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It used to be a land. After a lot of investment from Hongkong and Taiwan Province, its appearance has changed greatly. Abandoned fields are scattered among factories, commodity buildings and department stores. Some commentators believe that Dongguan is what geographer McKee called the "urban-rural fringe". As Guangzhou and Shenzhen are relatively developed cities, it is necessary to control the number of people moving in from other places, so Dongguan between them has played the role of "flood storage area", "storing up the rolling tide of migrant workers and relieving the pressure of surrounding big cities". On the basis of his investigation in Indonesia, McKee first put forward the concept of "urban-rural fringe", which is also a kind of "local urbanization". It has the characteristics of both the city and the countryside, and also serves as a farmer. Residents in the integrated areas, especially women, will go to the surrounding big cities to engage in non-agricultural work, and they will also "leave their homes". However, it is not the indigenous people in Dongguan who are engaged in non-agricultural work, but a large number of migrant workers from other places.
Dutch architect Karen applied to design a new building for CCTV in Beijing? Koolhaas has repeatedly marveled at the rapidity and disorder of urbanization in the Pearl River Delta: "There is no intermediate experience in jumping from a blank to a city state", "Towns are just a collection of seemingly unrelated buildings", "Rossi said that cities cannot live without history, but now a large number of people long for a life without history"; As a living environment, it's quite strange and a little humiliating. Relevant parties of Guangdong Provincial Government also admit that the urbanization in the Pearl River Delta is "low in development level and quality" and "imperfect in urban construction management institutions", which leads to serious problems such as environmental pollution and ecological deterioration. Therefore, we must "constantly optimize the reorganization structure and spatial layout."
Outside the "three-hour economic circle" on the west bank of the Pearl River, relatively little foreign investment has entered, giving township enterprises and private enterprises more room for development. For example, Zhongshan's model of "bringing down (municipal enterprises), one town and one product" and Shunde's model of "breaking through (township enterprises) and driving both (municipal and village enterprises)" have accumulated successful experience for endogenous economy. The towns on the west coast have also preserved profound historical and cultural heritage, which is different from the general fast food culture presented on the east coast. But overall, Guangdong's endogenous economic development is not comparable to Zhejiang's: Zhejiang's development model with private economy as the main body has boosted the county economy, and the industrial output value created by its 84 counties and cities has accounted for half of the province's total industrial output value. In 2003, the average GDP of Guangdong was only 48.75% of that of Zhejiang.
During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, efforts will be made to expand domestic demand and enhance the pulling effect of consumption on economic growth. If the proportion of endogenous economy increases nationwide, it will also bring changes to different types of urbanization. As for the urban construction on the east and west sides of the Pearl River Delta, there will also be new scenes.
Interaction between international metropolis and town.
Continuing to promote urbanization is an important strategy to solve the "three rural issues" and build a well-off society in an all-round way during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period. According to the estimation of domestic experts, in the next five years, there will be10.2 billion rural surplus labor force transferred to cities and towns; It is also estimated that 200 million to 300 million farmers will enter cities and towns in 15 years. In order to realize the transfer of 1 100 million rural surplus labor to cities and towns and put them into non-agricultural production, we must strive to expand domestic demand and accelerate the development of endogenous economy, and at the same time, we must continue to attach importance to the use of overseas markets, funds and technology. The process of urbanization will still be influenced by the general trend of economic globalization and regional integration.
China's export commodities produced by migrant workers still have obvious comparative advantages in the international market. There are a large number of surplus laborers in rural areas, and it is difficult to improve their technical level quickly. In the future, they will still have to compete by cheap and good quality. Some places propose to promote the coordinated development of endogenous and exogenous economies. In the actual market operation, it is impossible to eliminate the competitive relationship between them in the allocation of industrial resources. According to the different market conditions, it is an effective policy to promote urbanization in many ways and realize more rural population entering the city.
Industry always moves to the place with the greatest economic benefits. China is rich in labor force. As long as all localities can attract investment, they have the conditions to develop production, expand economic scale and bring benefits to local governments. Therefore, for a period of time, all parts of the country are competing to provide land, tax and other concessions in an attempt to attract investment, making it easier to attract foreign investment. After the central government restricted tax incentives nationwide, various places exchanged land for project funds. "According to the data of relevant departments, before the rectification of the land market order, there were more than 6,000 development zones of various types in the country, with a planned area of 36,000 square kilometers, exceeding the sum of the built-up areas of all cities in the country. In the process of urbanization in the Pearl River Delta, some time ago, "the county was removed to build the city", and a few years ago, the city was changed to a district, and the land originally belonging to the countryside was incorporated into a part of the big city. For example, the urban area of Guangzhou has expanded from 1200 square kilometers in the 1950s to more than 3,500 square kilometers after the merger of Panyu and Huadu. When more land is merged into cities, migrant workers are generally not accepted as registered residents because of the lag of urban construction and social services, resulting in "land urbanization is faster than population urbanization", and the per capita land area of expanding cities is higher than that of neighboring countries and regions in Asia.
Only Hong Kong has established borders. During the 25 years from 1979 to 2004, the population increased by 39.6% and the GDP increased by 276.5%, all of which were the results of improving efficiency within a fixed range, rather than relying on geographical extension. What flows out of Hong Kong are capital, technology and talents.
In the Pearl River Delta, with the gradual deepening and improvement of urban construction, the cost will inevitably rise, and a large number of export enterprises are also facing the need to further transfer to the mainland. According to Sassen's "fundamental interaction", the more decentralized the production links are, the more centralized the control and management links are. With the further development of traffic, the "three-hour economic circle", which used to rely mainly on land, can continue to expand, and the range of one-hour flight can be reached by plane, and all the trips of the day can be realized. If we take Hong Kong as the center, we can cover many places in the nine provinces of the Pan-Pearl River Delta. The key is to give full play to the advantages of "one country, two systems", open up contacts and remove obstacles to economic integration, so that the Pearl River Delta can play a greater role in promoting and radiating the economic development of the mainland.
Nowadays, on the one hand, the surrounding areas of the Pearl River Delta are preparing for the transfer of coastal industries, and many neighboring provinces have proposed to Hong Kong that they are willing to set aside plots for Hong Kong businessmen to invest. On the other hand, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries has also made suggestions to the mainland, hoping to get a piece of land and develop it into a Hong Kong industrial park; However, it still stays at the conceptual level and needs to be implemented. Hong Kong businessmen do not know how to transfer industries and expand reinvestment to the Mainland. Promoting industry and urbanization with investment is one of the national strategies during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period. In order to avoid repeating the situation that development zones are blooming everywhere, it is necessary to make overall planning at the national level, guide the flow of foreign capital and concentrate on the main locations that central cities can contact.
In the Chongqing Declaration issued by the 5th Asia-Pacific Mayor Summit from June 5 to 38, 2005+10, it was pointed out that "visionary urban planning is an important condition for urban development". Taking Scientific Outlook on Development as a whole, establishing the value standard of urbanization in the new stage and choosing the focus of accelerating urbanization according to the law of economic development will make the urbanization process in China more distinct, and will present unprecedented new achievements not only in quantity but also in quality. (Zeng Decheng: Advisor to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong)
Attachment: "China 2 1 Century Urbanization Development Strategy Forum" was held in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse this morning. The forum was co-sponsored by People's Daily Overseas Edition and China Strategy and Management Research Association, and co-hosted by International Cooperation Center of National Development and Reform Commission, China Mayors Association and Hong Kong Ruian Real Estate Development Co., Ltd..