Development and Opportunities in the Yangtze River Delta

Release time：2020-12-21    

This year, Chinese National Day coincides with the Mid-autumn Festival. In this small but long vacation the national railway transportation network welcomed the first peak since the outbreak of COVID-19. On October 1st, Yangtze River Delta Railway delivered 3 million 99 thousand passengers, hitting the top record of passenger delivery on a single day. The Yangtze River Delta is one of the regions with the most active economic development, the highest degree of openness and the strongest capacity of innovation. According to the data of the central bank, the total output value of the Yangtze River Delta reached 23.7 trillion yuan, accounting for about 23.9% of China’s total output value. What is the secret to the vigorous development of the Yangtze River Delta? What will its developmental potential be after the epidemic?

During the National Day holiday, a CGTN (China Global Television Network) reporter set off from Beijing by high-speed railway and headed south toward the most representative landmark of the economic development of the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai Bund, conduct a special interview with Professor Jun Qian, Executive Dean of Fanhai International School of Finance, Fudan University, who would give an in-depth analysis on the development and opportunities of the Yangtze River Delta.

“As the most economically developed region in China, the Yangtze River Delta has made enormous contributions to China’s GDP growth.” Professor Jun Qian affirmed. Various areas of this region are all making great progress, and they have different focuses. Shanghai plays a leading role and is endeavoring to build an international financial center. In both Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province, the manufacturing industry and the service industry are quite advanced. Private enterprises in Zhejiang have displayed a strong momentum while Jiangsu, apart from developing private enterprises, has laid much emphasis on further pushing state-owned enterprises bigger and stronger, which has made it a major economic province ranked second in China. Therefore, the Yangtze River Delta will continue to lead the Chinese economy to gradually revive from the epidemic and step farther into the system of globalization.

Among the urban agglomeration of the Yangtze River Delta, each city has its own unique advantage. The conveniently accessible high-speed railway network enables the many cities within this area to work together in creating and sharing talents and excellent resources. Qian also shared that he could go back and forth to Hangzhou to teach lessons and attend conferences within one day since it only takes 1 to 2 hours from Shanghai to surrounding cities by high-speed railway. The crisscrossing high-speed railway lines weave the whole Yangtze River Delta together so that all the cities can work out their potentials for their individual interests while also coordinating cooperative developments.

When it comes to the developmental potential of the Yangtze River Delta, Qian held that compared with some other world-class urban agglomerations globally, there is still much room for growth, and many measures that need to be established and improved. For example, administrative barriers should be eliminated to achieve efficient circulation of resource elements and collaborative innovation. For Shanghai, the “bridgehead” of the development of the Yangtze River Delta, to become a real international financial center, it should further integrate into the international financial system by introducing a great number of foreign financial institutions and investors into the domestic market. Professor Qian expressed his high anticipation on the future development of the Yangtze River Delta.

Click here to check the detailed contents of the interview.