Economic Observer Network Li Du/Article "Shandong must strive to take the lead in further comprehensively deepening reforms and promoting high-level opening up." In May, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Shandong and encouraged Shandong to "set a good position and take the lea

Economic Observer Network Li Du/Text "Shandong must strive to take the lead in further comprehensively deepening reforms and promoting high-level opening up."

Since the reform and opening up, Shandong has taken the lead in establishing leading advantages in opening up, infrastructure and industry in the country. It has firmly ranked as the largest economic province in the north. It is proud of its "group economy" and its total GDP has ranked first in the country for five consecutive years. the third. In the first quarter of 2024, Shandong's GDP remained stable and improved, contributing a decisive force to China's economic market. It can be said that judging from various economic data, Shandong has been playing a leading role.

But it is obvious that General Secretary Xi has higher expectations for Shandong, the blue peninsula: In addition to stabilizing the overall economic output, Shandong can also comprehensively promote high-quality development and amidst the wave of industrial transformation. A beam that supports a great country.

So, why does Shandong take the lead?

Picture source: Tu Chong Creative

Playing a leading role in the regional economic map

In China's opening up to the outside world, Shandong has always been the bridgehead. This peninsula, which stretches out its arms towards the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, is the frontier beachhead for China’s layout of maritime economy and blue economy.

If Shandong is regarded as an independent economy, Shandong's per capita GDP is about US$12,000. Its population size is between Japan and South Korea, which are across the sea. From a global economic perspective, we often compare Shandong with Japan and South Korea.

In addition to its superior natural environment, Shandong's manufacturing industry has a solid foundation - it covers the widest range of categories in China's manufacturing system, and it is a major agricultural province and a major province of science and education... Among the elements of a healthy economy, Shandong has no obvious bias towards science. .

Shandong's comparative advantage lies in that Shandong occupies a large share of both the state-owned economy and the private economy. Data from 2022 show that Shandong ranks first in the country in the number of state-owned industrial enterprises and fourth in the country in the number of private industrial enterprises.

At present, the three trillion-dollar GDP cities of Qingdao, Jinan and Yantai are balancedly distributed within the province. The county economy driven by the three major metropolitan areas is remarkable. Therefore, many hidden champions and small giants are seeking innovation in various industrial chains. As a result, they have formed a strong impetus to the northern economy.

Shandong is the hometown of Confucius and Mencius and the birthplace of Confucian culture. Its cultural advantages determine that it will be deeply involved in the allocation of resources in the global market like the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area. This gives us more expectations for Shandong. As China’s largest economic, populous, and cultural province... Shandong can move closer to developed countries around the world, take the lead, and blaze a trail to lead the rise of great powers.

Picture source: Tu Chong Creative

Therefore, General Secretary Xi Jinping made a request at Rizhao Port that Shandong should give full play to its unique advantages of rich marine resources, manage the ocean, develop towards the sea, build a world-class marine port group, and build a modern ocean. Economic development highland.

Such expectations reflect Shandong’s special status in China’s economic landscape. In a series of national strategic chess games such as seeking to strengthen the sea, opening up to the outside world, leading the north, and taking the lead in high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, Shandong has multiple identities and multiple identities. Shandong must shoulder this responsibility as a pillar province and the backbone of the regional economy.

plays the leading role in "dare to be the first in the world"

Sometimes, individual auspicious moments interpret the powerful footsteps of the country's progress.

In 1992, Chen Guang, the mayor of Zhucheng City, Shandong Province, made a decision to buy out all the state-owned assets of the Zhucheng Electric Machinery Factory by the employees. The government no longer held the controlling stake. The employees became shareholders and elected the board of directors and the board of supervisors.

In the spring of this year, Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech in the South: "Not reforming will lead to a dead end." The criterion for measuring the success or failure of reform is "three benefits." He encouraged people to "boldly try, boldly break out, and boldly take risks"... The voice across the country to promote the reform of state-owned enterprises has been unprecedentedly high.

Chen Guang, who was full of passion, responded positively, but he soon earned a label - "Chen Sold Out". There is no set line for reform. How can you cross the river by feeling for the stones without being stung by the rocks? Those who are in it need to Experience a thrilling confrontation of ideas.

Fortunately, after some investigation, Chen Guang finally received approval from the highest level, and the "Zhucheng Experience" became a shining example of state-owned enterprise reform, which illuminated the country and started a wave of state-owned enterprise reform.

reform! reform! reform! We always call for state-owned enterprises to dare to do things, private enterprises to dare to venture, and foreign companies to dare to invest. If Shandong wants to take the lead in further comprehensively deepening reforms, it cannot do without the encouragement of those who dare to do so. It was those government officials and entrepreneurs who "dare to be the first in the world" who took the first step to break the shackles of the system.

Judging from decades of experience in reform and opening up, both state-owned and private enterprises have grown and developed in the process of passing through barriers - concept barriers, identity barriers, product barriers, market barriers, management barriers... It is no exaggeration to say that every barrier is a challenge. It's a matter of life and death. To break through is to break the rules, to create something out of nothing, and to dare to be the first in the world under the constraints of constraints and systems.

Today, in a world of radical changes and huge uncertainty, we are calling for those who dare to venture more than ever. We not only want entrepreneurs to stand at the center of the stage, but also let reformers stand at the center of the stage. Give them room for mistakes, let them dare to venture into, be promising, and burst out with passion.

And we need not deny that some state-owned enterprises in Shandong still have a serious "boss" mentality, and quite a number of private enterprises have a very obvious tendency to rely on the government - this is not a subject of China's transformation - it is necessary to comprehensively deepen the reform of systems and mechanisms , we must be determined to get rid of dependence on enterprises and go into battle with ease.

Picture source: Tuchong Creative

In promoting high-level opening up to the outside world, facing foreign investors or foreign investors, Shandong must not only be "hospitable", but also make guests stay, and when they stay, they must sit at the right table and sit upright. Xi can also be the host.

In the land of Qilu, the desire for reform is still so urgent, and the road to reform is still so arduous.

When the new era beats the drum for Shandong people, we hope that those officials and entrepreneurs will move forward boldly: those that are clear should be done exploratoryly and creatively; those that are not yet clear and cannot be prohibited by law, We must also dare to try and do it freely; those who have already done it and achieved effective results must continue to do it and do their best to promote it.

Therefore, Shandong has unique sample significance in focusing on promoting Chinese-style modernization and resolving outstanding contradictions that restrict high-quality development. Its actual strength in improving systems, improving mechanisms, stimulating vitality, and adding motivation has served as a good example for China. Economical climbing and overcoming obstacles provide a navigation.

Shandong must also take up the role of pioneer.

plays a leading role in the wave of industrial change

Since the second decade of this century, the technological revolution based on mobile Internet has set off a new wave of industrial change on a global scale. The digital economy has landed on the beach and is unstoppably penetrating and impacting all existing economic fields, developing new applications, products, enterprises and industrial forms... subverting all existing industry forms, business structures, enterprise structures and processes that it can subvert , and bring about a complete revaluation and differentiation of the values ​​and prospects of enterprises, cities, and regions.

China is one of the main battlefields in this wave of economic change, and Shandong is the frontier of this main battlefield: on the one hand, a group of local digital economy trendsetters have grown up, and on the other hand, the traditional economy is being tested in the new economic wave. Rebirth and upgrade.

However, Shandong has not taken the lead in the wave of social Internet and consumer Internet, and has frequently been speechless in the extremely active digital consumption - although it has also benefited a lot from it. This may explain why Shandong is the only approved comprehensive pilot area for the conversion of old and new kinetic energy. If it fails to gain an advantage at the start, Shandong will urgently need to catch up in this digital wave race.

Therefore, if Shandong can creatively switch its economic engine and become a leader again in the era of digital economy, then China will have found a key to the new economy.

In Shandong Province's "Digital Transformation and Innovation 2022 Action Plan", Shandong is determined to promote the digital transformation of production methods, adhere to the "two-wheel drive" of digital industrialization and industrial digitization, stimulate innovation vitality, and continuously spawn new industries, new business formats, and new industries. model to promote the overall transformation of development methods.

Liu Shangxi, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, recently said that the impact of the digital revolution is all-round and subversive, and the digital economy cannot be developed using the thinking of an industrial society. The internal logic of promoting the digital economy on the basis of industrialization is different from that of industrial society. It requires quantitative change to qualitative change, and it requires a leap "from 0 to 1". Only those disruptive companies that have opened up new tracks and nurtured new business formats. Innovation is the new qualitative productivity, and the key is "qualitative" change, not just newness.

Such a conclusion makes people feel excited to embrace the new wave, but also full of uneasiness. Shandong enterprises and entrepreneurs have been fully immersed in industrial society. Their advantages are clearly there, and their disadvantages are also obvious and inescapable. How can Shandong people not experience a brand-new conceptual change and an upgrading of thinking? If we take a longer historical perspective, it seems like just yesterday that Shandong completed industrialization, but the wave of breaking away from the inherent thinking of industrialization is already knocking on the door.

Concept changes are often the most difficult for those who are pioneers in the traditional manufacturing industry.

Picture source: Tuchong Creative

Perhaps, this is the industrial wave that time cannot wait for us. The characteristics of the digital economy determine that we cannot catch up with one step at a time in international competition. The iterative upgrading of digital technology is accelerating, and the development of the industrial economy can make up for it - China has made up for it well, but once the development of the digital economy If you fall behind, it is difficult to have the opportunity to make up lessons.

Focusing on this, Shandong has an equally arduous responsibility to fully release the integration efficiency of the real economy and the digital economy and develop new productive forces according to local conditions. It must be a pioneer and embrace this new wave of digital economy and embrace this roaring tsunami. The new wave of AI is coming.

has a metaphor that if we compare Guangdong and Shandong, Guangdong is like a car, which is smart and light and effortless on the road of rapid development; while Shandong is like a super heavy truck, which starts very slowly, but once it starts, it is like a car. A great deal of strength.

This metaphor indeed expresses the significance of Shandong to China. This super heavy truck in Shandong needs to be picked up in large quantities under pressure. In terms of serving as China's economic engine, it releases great power and accelerates the construction of green, low-carbon high-quality Develop the pilot area, create a new high-level opening-up, and pave a new path for China to be brave in reform and take the lead.

Picture source: Tu Chong Creative