Chapter 37 36. Opening up in Kunshan: The answer is blowing in the wind

In 1984, Kunshan, with a total industrial output value of only tens of millions, decided to set up its own development zone to attract investment and develop industries. Since then, using foreign capital, especially Taiwanese capital, Kunshan has leapt from an agricultural county to an economically strong county.Kunshan is located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province, between Shanghai and Suzhou, 50 kilometers east of Shanghai and 37 kilometers west of Suzhou. In 1989, Kunshan was withdrawn from the county and established as a city, with 15 towns under its jurisdiction, and it has famous parks such as the National Economic and Technological Development Zone and the Export Processing Zone.By actively opening up, attracting foreign investment, and developing industries and tertiary industries, Kunshan has ranked first among the top 100 counties (cities) in the country published by the National Bureau of Statistics for several consecutive years.

Those who are used to looking at statistics may find the following figures problematic. In 1949, the total industrial output value of a small southern city named Kunshan was 22.64 million yuan; in 1978, the total industrial output value was 280 million yuan; in 2007, the total industrial output value of Kunshan was 115.18 billion yuan. Kunshan is located between Shanghai and Suzhou. Shanghai is 30 kilometers away from Kunshan in the east, and Suzhou is 50 kilometers away from Kunshan in the west.Taking the fastest bullet train, you can reach Kunshan in 15 minutes from Shanghai, so that under the pressure of unattainable housing prices, many Shanghainese even choose to buy houses in Kunshan.Being so close to Shanghai makes it possible for Kunshan to use Hongqiao and Pudong, the two airports in Shanghai.

But being so close to two famous cities also has its disadvantages, that is, will the big city squeeze its neighboring small town, or even turn the big city into a blood-sucking machine, sacrificing the economic development of the small city to maintain the big city? Prosperity.Obviously, Kunshan's 115.18 billion GDP proves that there is no need to worry about Kunshan.Kunshan's achievements have made it consecutively ranked first among the top 100 counties (cities) selected by the State Council of the People's Republic of China. How did it jump from 280 million yuan in 1978 to 115.18 billion yuan in 2007?This growth rate is very rare even among companies in high-growth industries.

Time goes back to 1984.This year is also of special significance to the whole of China. On January 24, 1984, Deng Xiaoping went south to inspect the three special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Xiamen.The most respected politician in China at that time was later known as the chief architect of China's economy. It is generally believed that he officially started China's 30-year period of rapid economic growth and is still continuing. During the inspection, Deng Xiaoping said that when I visited Shenzhen this time, my impression was that it was prosperous and prosperous.Shenzhen's construction speed is quite fast, and Shekou is even faster.His inscription for the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone is: Shenzhen's development and experience prove that my country's policy of establishing a special economic zone is correct.His inscription in the Xiamen Special Economic Zone reads: The special zone must continue to operate.A month later, Deng Xiaoping returned to Beijing and continued to promote the advantages of the special zone: We established a special zone and implemented an open policy. There is a guiding ideology to be clear, that is: not to close, but to open.The special zone is a window, a window for technology, a window for management, a window for knowledge, and a window for the opening policy. The special zone can introduce technology, acquire knowledge, and learn management.When the coastal special zone is well done and the economy develops, the income can be higher.Let some areas get rich first, egalitarianism will not work.

Deng Xiaoping immediately quelled the wave of attacks on the special economic zones that prevailed at that time, and also calmed down the anxiety in the hearts of local political leaders including Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Xiamen.This was the first of Deng Xiaoping's two famous southern tours, which he used to promote the opening up of the entire country.Facts have proved that this approach is very effective. From March 26 to April 6, 1984, according to Deng Xiaoping's opinion, the Secretariat of the Central Committee and the State Council jointly held a symposium on some coastal cities. At the meeting, it was suggested that Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, and Lianyungang should be further opened up. 14 port cities including , Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai.In May, the TV broadcasted the news that these 14 cities were approved by the State Council as the first batch of open coastal cities in the country.

Deng Xiaoping and the party and government led by him affirmed the correctness of establishing special economic zones, and gave those special zone cities many preferential policies.At this time, Kunshan, a small city around Shanghai, keenly captured the answer floating in the wind.In this year, Kunshan decided to set aside 3.17 square kilometers of land on the east side of the old city of Kunshan to establish an industrial development zone at its own expense.Because it is not a designated open city, Kunshan is bound to face the dilemma of having neither funding source nor preferential policies.These local political leaders are truly audacious.

Looking back later, people found that Kunshan was just an agricultural county that mainly relied on planting vegetables and rice. It ranked last in the level of economic development among the six counties under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, and was nicknamed "Little Six". Afterwards so vibrant.A report said that when government officials from all counties went to Suzhou for a meeting, people from Kunshan could only sit in the last row, and they could only listen to what others had to say, and they couldn't get in the way. In this year's Chronicle of Events of the Kunshan Economic Development Zone, it is written:

"On January 8, the Kunshan County Party Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward a new idea of ​​developing Kunshan's economy at the winter training meeting for three-level cadres, from a single agricultural operation to a comprehensive agricultural and sideline industry operation, and implemented a change in ideology. On June 16, the county magistrate Wu Kequan presided over The office meeting of the county magistrate was held to discuss the overall planning of Yushan Town, the county seat, and to determine the concept of Kunshan's industrial development in the southeast direction. On July 15-16, Cai Changlin, secretary of the county party committee, presided over a meeting of the standing committee of the county party committee, conveying the idea of ​​visiting and studying Guangdong, Fujian's reform and opening up, and accelerating Based on the experience of economic development, it was proposed that urban construction should broaden its thinking, and that Kunshan should open up a promising new industrial zone. On August 21, the third meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth County People's Congress deliberated and approved the "1984-1986 Work Plan of the People's Government of Kunshan County". The plan proposes to open up a new industrial area in the southeast of Yushan Town, and strive to build backbone roads and communication facilities in three years, so as to gradually form industrial, commercial, and residential areas for residents and workers. On September 12, the county party committee and the county government organized the township The secretary of the party committee and the person in charge of the economic department visited township enterprises in Jiangyin and Wuxi to further emancipate their minds, change their concepts, and establish the guiding ideology that the economy should be turned over and the industry should take on heavy responsibilities. On September 18, the president of the 14th Bank of Japan led a group of 5 people , came to Kunming to inspect the infrastructure construction site of China Suwangyou Co., Ltd. located in the new district. On September 28, the county government held a county magistrate office (expanded) meeting to discuss and study the overall planning of the construction of Yushan Town, the county seat, and the 1985 county urban construction project. It is determined that by 2000 , the size of the county seat is 10 square kilometers, with a population of 100,000, a total industrial and agricultural output value of 1 billion yuan, and a new industrial zone will be built. On December 19, the county government issued the "Notice on Strengthening Urban Planning Management", which stipulated the scope of the new zone, planning management, application Regulations on land use, construction projects, etc. are made, and parts of the three villages of Xihe, Zhujiang, and Hexing in Chengnan Township are defined as the area of ​​the new industrial zone.”

They spent 500,000 yuan to set up a big billboard at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai - "Welcome to the National Economic and Technological Development Zone Kunshan to invest and start a business", and also publicized Kunshan's investment policy in Hong Kong's "Ta Kung Pao" - "Welcome capitalists Exploitation". The development of industry and the establishment of a special zone became the things that Kunshan people considered the most that year.Later, when the people recalled it, they could still think of various anecdotes. Xuan Binglong, the former director of the Kunshan Economic Development Zone, recalled the scene when he founded the Kunshan Development Zone: "First, because it was not approved by the state, there were no policy resources; second, because Kunshan was an agricultural county at that time, there were no material resources. 500,000 yuan to build a development zone, the office only has 8 small bungalows, and a few bicycles, a section of the road is people riding bicycles, and a section of the road is bicycles "riding" people. College students are barefoot and carry a ruler to measure the land The cement and bricks we use to build our houses all rely on people to resist. Because Kunshan is an agricultural county, the industrial output value before 1984 was only tens of millions, and the fiscal revenue was only 57 million. People in Kunshan don’t believe it when they talk about industry. I told them not to brag. At that time, our industrial district did not dare to call it a development zone because it had not been officially approved by the state. At that time in Kunshan, the restaurants were closed at 6 p.m. ?In the end, we had to bring foreign businessmen to our home for dinner. At that time, the state stipulated that foreign businessmen were not allowed to come to our homes. If we were subject to these regulations, how could we introduce foreign investment. As a last resort, we had to check again and again.”

There is also a legend that when two grassroots cadres from Kunshan went to the Suzhou Light Industry Bureau for a meeting and reported their work to the director, they accidentally saw a document on the director's desk, saying that a Japanese wanted to invest in a glove factory in Suzhou.The two immediately called Kunshan County Mayor Wu Kequan.Wu Kequan rushed to Suzhou immediately after hearing about it.An hour later, Wu Kequan pushed open the door of the light industry director's office and began to ask the director for the project.This is the first foreign-funded enterprise settled in Kunshan, Japanese-funded Suwangni Company.

Later, Kunshan’s self-run development zone was supported by the National Special Economic Zone Office. The 14 national extreme development zones held a meeting, and Kunshan was also invited to participate, which was called the “14+1” meeting.The Kunshan Special Economic Zone took advantage of this "14+1" signboard to attract investment in a grandiose manner.This strategy continued until 1992 when the Kunshan Economic and Technological Development Zone became a state-level development zone. In 1997, Kunshan began to imitate Taiwan's Hsinchu Industrial Park and established the first high-tech export processing park in mainland China. "At that time, there was no such model in the whole country, and they had never even heard of this concept. They started planning and lobbying in 1997, and until it was officially approved in 2000, they went to Beijing 84 times in three years, prompting the eight ministries and committees of the State Council to sign, In the end, Wu Yi, Vice Premier of the State Council, was always impressed. After getting the approval, they relocated 2 schools and 184 farm households in the fastest speed and within 9 months.” Xuan Binglong recalled. All these efforts have created a city of economic development driven by foreign investment.The role of foreign capital in Kunshan's economic development is second only to Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, which are also highly dependent on foreign capital.And a study shows that Kunshan's own private enterprises have also developed correspondingly while introducing foreign capital.Since 2003, the number of private enterprises in Kunshan has increased by more than 3,000 each year. By the end of 2006, among the county-level cities in Jiangsu Province, Kunshan ranked first in the number of registered private enterprises and second in registered capital. At the same time, Kunshan, which has become stronger, has also begun to consciously adjust the quality and industrial structure of its foreign investment.They consciously reduce the proportion of labor-intensive manufacturing industries, and strengthen some competitive industrial clusters, such as the IT industry cluster, automobile industry cluster and optoelectronic industry cluster that have been formed in Kunshan. The stories of Kunshan are representative of China's economic miracle as a whole, and they show how openness can be a boon to an otherwise closed economy.