Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, with a regional GDP of 561.5 billion yuan last year, continues to be at the forefront of county economic development in the country.
What are the vanguard busy with today? What inspiration does Kunshan’s next step give us? Let’s start with four keywords.
"Question List"
When communicating face-to-face with cadres in Kunshan, what they talk about most is not their achievements and experiences, but a "list of questions."
Kunshan is facing tremendous pressure from the conversion of old and new driving forces. Land resources are in short supply, environmental constraints are tightening, and production costs are rising. Kunshan's economic aggregate is already "big" enough, but Kunshan people themselves believe that "strong" is not enough, there can be more "new", and "toughness" needs to be improved.
"Study new situations and solve new problems." The new situations in the eyes of Kunshan people include technological changes leading to accelerated industrial transformation, external environmental shocks increasing development uncertainty, regional linkages developing in depth, people having new expectations for a better life, rapid development and challenges placing higher demands on cadres, etc.
New problems to be solved include how to develop new productive forces in accordance with local conditions, enhance development resilience, boost enterprise development confidence, promote the deep integration of "industry and city people", promote common prosperity, enhance the entrepreneurial spirit of officers, etc.
It's not easy to be a vanguard. Being at the forefront means that you will be the first to encounter new impacts brought by the external environment and new difficulties faced during transformation.
The reason why "advanced" is advanced is that we always face problems head-on and overcome difficulties.
"Create something out of nothing"
A new story about Kunshan, the protagonist is coffee.
Kunshan does not produce a single coffee bean. But in just a few years, it has become the capital of the international coffee industry, with more than 40 domestic and foreign leading coffee industry companies gathered here. The import and roasting volume of green coffee beans has accounted for 60% of the country's total.
Kunshan has written many such stories that "come out of nothing".
In the early 1980s, Kunshan was just an agricultural county with the lowest economy in Suzhou. Under the background of the era of reform and opening up, Kunshan people took the initiative to establish new industrial zones and built an industrial foundation. In the midst of poverty, they thought about change and started by "making something out of nothing".
Today, electronic information and equipment manufacturing are Kunshan's two leading industries, with an output value exceeding one trillion yuan and tens of thousands of foreign-invested projects.
How can we move forward based on a high base and reflect the "accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the backbone" emphasized by the National Advanced Manufacturing Conference?
Kunshan's answer is: continue to "make something out of nothing", continue to "seek progress at a high level", and further move from manufacturing to creation, from "both ends are outside" to "self-centered", and from the brightness of "points" to the brightness of "groups".
"Creating something out of nothing" is part of Yiwu's development experience, and Kunshan resonates with it.
"Four chains" + "one chain"
Kunshan has "four chains": pen chain, fruit chain, car chain, and wisdom chain.
The production line in Kunshan can produce one-half of the world's laptops, one-third of the iPhones, and one-third of the AI servers at peak times. There are also nearly a thousand auto parts companies gathered here.
The latest and most active among the “four chains” is the “intelligent chain”. This is a practical exploration based on the deployment of the National Advanced Manufacturing Conference and closely following the new generation of intelligent manufacturing.
“Industrial chain investment promotion” is Kunshan’s specialty. "Whatever is lacking, recruit whatever is needed" - when they first started, they took apart a laptop and looked for investment for those parts that Kunshan could not yet produce. Continuously build and strengthen chains, solidify them, and strengthen them. As long as there is a "chain", we can achieve scale, reduce costs, and increase resilience.
In addition to the "Four Chains", Kunshan actually has a "One Chain" - "Chain Shanghai".
Back then, the road to Kunshan started based on "Linhai". In recent years, "Chain Shanghai" has created a new situation. Three years ago, Suzhou built a new subway line 11, which is connected with Shanghai subway line 11 at Huaqiao Station. Now the average number of passengers per day is 170,000. The integration of Shanghai and Jiangsu has become a reality.
Kunshan's "Chain Shanghai" used to take over Shanghai's "overflow", but now it provides active docking services. "Chain Shanghai" has developed into the "Chain Yangtze River Delta".
There are many stories on the "chain", which shows that Kunshan can grasp the laws of economics and is also good at placing itself in a broad area beyond the county to seek development.
"Three o'clock in the afternoon"
The most famous Kunshan native in the past two years is a "new Kunshan native". His name is Wang Jibing.
Wang Jibing and his wife came to Kunshan to work more than 20 years ago, opening a small shop and working as takeaway riders. He loves to write poetry, and his song "Three in the Afternoon" has become popular all over the Internet. At the beginning of last year, he went to the main station Spring Festival Gala and closed the curtain for Faye Wong's "The World Gives Me". In July this year, Wang Jibing's collection of poems won the Lu Xun Literature Award.
There are millions of "new Kunshan people" like Wang Jibing. By making up for the shortcomings in people's livelihood and promoting equalization of basic public services, Kunshan is at the forefront of the country.
"Three o'clock in the afternoon" is no longer a poem.
It has become a new employment group service system of "Walking with the Light at 3pm" - opening "Kun Xiao Ge Hospital" and "Kun Xiao Ge Canteen" to provide delivery riders with stations for vehicle mobile phone charging, meal heating, and free drinking water, making it easier for "Little Brother Code" to enter the community and solving the difficulty of children of riders entering kindergarten...
To create a “city for life” where every new and old Kunshan person is willing to work and live for a long time – this is the new goal proposed by Kunshan.
To truly understand Kunshan, you cannot just look at the ranking of economic aggregate.
Kunshan is on the “problem list” and will never slack off.
Kunshan, which “makes something out of nothing”, is particularly creative.
In Kunshan, which is on the “four chains” plus the “one chain”, the advanced manufacturing industry is full of vitality.
Kunshan at "three o'clock in the afternoon" is simple and warm.
