The words of Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of reform and opening up, helped Shenzhen go through an extraordinary 40 years.
In 1979, he proposed "setting aside a place" to create a special economic zone; in August 1980, Shenzhen was approved to become one of the first special economic zones in China. 40 years of excitement, in the blink of an eye. Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has grown from a "small fishing village" to today's international metropolis.
Over the past 40 years, Shenzhen has developed from a special economic zone to a free trade pilot zone, one of the central cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and then a pioneering demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics. Its functional positioning has also changed from the early stage of reform and opening up. The "window and experimental field" has become a high-quality development highland, a model city under the rule of law, a model of urban civilization, a benchmark for people's livelihood and happiness, and a pioneer of sustainable development.
Shenzhen is known as "the most influential and best-constructed special economic zone". What indicators are used to prove "the best construction"?
In 1980, Shenzhen’s GDP was only 270 million yuan, and its per capita GDP was 835 yuan; by 2019, Shenzhen’s GDP had reached 2,692.7 billion yuan, and its per capita GDP exceeded 200,000 yuan. In just 40 years, the GDP of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has increased nearly 10,000 times, and the per capita GDP has risen to the top of all cities in the country, creating a miracle in the history of world economic development.
There are more than 5,400 special economic zones in the world, and none of them can maintain rapid growth for a long time like Shenzhen. Over the past 40 years, Shenzhen’s GDP growth rate has been 4.9 times the world average and 1.8 times the national level. This means that for every step the world has taken in the past 40 years, the Shenzhen Special Administrative Region has taken nearly five steps forward.
Not only that, among the recently announced Fortune Global 500, 8 companies are from Shenzhen. The "2020 High-Quality Development Report of Chinese Cities" recently released by the 21st Century Economic Research Institute also shows that Shenzhen won three individual championships in comprehensive performance, coordinated development, and green development, and its total high-quality development score ranked first in the country.
Behind the remarkable achievements of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, it is by no means a simple "one special feature", but the courage and vigor of its unremitting promotion of market-oriented reforms for 40 years. The Shenzhen miracle exactly explains the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics vitality and competitiveness. Standing at a new starting point of 40 years and exploring the secret of the SAR's growth, the significance lies not only in solving the mystery of the SAR's sustained high economic growth, but also in how the SAR reorganizes and starts again to assume the role of the core engine of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the pioneer demonstration of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The district’s dual mission.
In 1979, Ni He'an, then deputy captain of the fourth team of the second division of the fourth navigation engineering bureau of the Ministry of Transport, and more than 100 teammates went to Shekou, Shenzhen, and became the first batch of China's first industrial park opened to the outside world. builder. Ni He'an's first important task was to blast the mountain to open a road and remove a road-blocking hill between the fifth and sixth bays of Shekou.
After discussion, the Shekou Industrial Zone Headquarters proposed the cluster blasting construction method. The heavy responsibility for the construction operations fell on the fourth team. Ni Hean personally pressed the blasting button. As the first mountain cannon sounded in Shekou, the land of southern Guangdong boiled overnight, and excavators roared day and night, marking the beginning of large-scale economic development.
From Gongye 1st Road to Gongye 9th Road, from Taizi Road to Sea World, Shekou Industrial Zone still retains the imprint of the reform and opening up. Although Shekou is small, as the pioneer of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, it has created many "firsts in the country".
Established the first true joint-stock company, created a quota overproduction reward system, managed projects through project bidding for the first time, commercialized employee housing, recruited talents across the country, and took the lead in implementing a comprehensive The member contract system was established, and it called for the establishment of the country's first joint-stock commercial bank with corporate legal persons and the first commercial insurance institution founded by an enterprise.
In fact, a large number of enterprises that were conceived and started in Shekou Industrial Zone in the early days have already grown into well-known representatives with global reputation, such as China Merchants Bank, Ping An Insurance, CIMC Group, Kingdee...
Not only Shekou, the gene of being the first to eat crabs has also penetrated into all aspects of the development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. The establishment of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (hereinafter referred to as the "Shenzhen Stock Exchange") is a typical example. Yu Guogang, one of the main organizers of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and former deputy general manager, recalled that the Shenzhen Stock Exchange took huge risks of violating regulations on the day it was born. He vividly compared it to "taking out the birth certificate after giving birth to a child."
It turns out that in May 1990, the preparatory team of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange went to Beijing to apply for approval for the opening of the market, but did not receive a "birth certificate"; under the approval of the then Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee Secretary Li Hao and others, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange It was the first to start centralized trading in the country on December 1, 1990; it was not until April 16, 1991 that the People's Bank of China issued a "birth certificate" with the approval of the State Council.
Guo Wanda, executive vice president of China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, once asked relevant decision-makers about this matter. His response said, "Shenzhen, as a special zone, must be bold and dare to try. Doing so will only face the consequences of There are two outcomes: one is that the central government doesn’t agree, so I shut it down; the other is that the central government scolds me and allows me to continue. But no matter which outcome, I have to try it out.”
It was under such pioneering measures that the "crab-eating" spirit gradually deepened in the practice of Shenzhen's market economy and lasted throughout the entire 40 years.
Just take the reform of the housing system as an example. In 1980, Shenzhen began to build Donghu Liyuan, which was China’s first commercial housing community after the reform and opening up; in 1987, Shenzhen launched the land auction since the founding of New China. "The first hammer"; now, Shenzhen has launched the "second housing reform" in 2018, proposing that by 2035, the total number of newly built talent housing, affordable commercial housing and public rental housing will be no less than 1 million units. Exceeding the supply of commercial housing.
Since the establishment of the Export Processing Zone in the Shekou Industrial Zone, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has attracted a large number of Hong Kong investment by virtue of its comparative advantages of cheap labor and land, including the first imported hotel and the first imported processing plants, etc., which quickly opened up the special zone to the outside world.
This can be seen from a set of data. When the special zone was established, there was only one county-run enterprise in Shenzhen with 108 employees. With the help of the "three to one supplement" processing trade method, Shenzhen has successfully embedded itself in the global electronic information industry chain. By the end of 1994, there were more than 8,000 "three come and one supplement" enterprises in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, employing 1 million people, and product types had grown from less than 10 to nearly 1,000, forming a modern electronics industry dominated by audio-visual products. system.
Take Foxconn as an example. As one of the first Taiwan-funded companies to enter the mainland, Foxconn began setting up factories in Shenzhen in 1988 and has witnessed several industrial leaps since Shenzhen's reform and opening up.
Foxconn founder Terry Gou recalled that Foxconn’s first production base in Shenzhen was the computer connector factory in Xixiang, Bao’an, Shenzhen. By 2004, it had gradually transformed from a simple “three to one supplement” to The transformation and upgrading of high-end manufacturing such as computers and mobile phones has quickly emerged as the world's largest "OEM giant" by relying on labor dividends, large scale, high efficiency, and low gross profit strategies.
Tang Jie, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) and former deputy mayor of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government, believes that “foreign investment is the main focus, production is mainly processing and assembly, and products are mainly exports.” The most concise and concise policy proposition for Shenzhen to join the global division of labor system.
However, in the 1990s, as the policy advantages of special economic zones weakened, the high energy consumption, high pollution and other sequelae of the "three to one supplement" enterprises also began to appear, and industrial transformation was imperative. . At the end of 1993, the Shenzhen Special Administrative Region issued a resolution to stop the registration of new "three come and one supplement" enterprises, which also marked the end of Shenzhen's use of low-cost factors to develop export processing trade.
In order to cultivate emerging industries, Shenzhen clearly formulated the industrial development strategy of "taking high-tech industries as the forerunner, advanced industries as the foundation, and the tertiary industry as the pillar" in the "Eighth Five-Year Plan", and proposed to "make Shenzhen With the goal of building a high-tech industrial development and production base, we strive to develop six leading industries including electronics, petrochemicals, light industry, textiles, new building materials, and precision machinery.
A detail that has become a favorite in the SAR is: In 1999, Tencent founder Ma Huateng received the first crucial venture investment of US$2.2 million at the first China International High-tech Fair. This technological achievements trade fair, later known as "China's No. 1 Science and Technology Exhibition", became the beginning of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone's adjustment and optimization of its industrial structure in the new century.
After experiencing the "empty cage and replacing birds" to eliminate low-end and backward production capacity, and technological innovation to promote industrial transformation and upgrading, Shenzhen has become a "three new and one high" (new economy, new business formats, new models, high-tech Technology enterprises) are typical representatives of innovative development.
Since 2009, Shenzhen has successively introduced and implemented seven strategic emerging industry plans and supporting policies, including biology, the Internet, new energy, new materials, and cultural creativity, to create new economic growth points. As of 2019, there are more than 30,000 high-tech innovative enterprises in Shenzhen, and the added value of strategic emerging industries totals 1,015.551 billion yuan. The added value of its advanced manufacturing industry accounts for 72.1% of the designated industry, and the added value of high-tech manufacturing accounts for 72.1%. It also reached 67.3%.
As the "vanguard" of reform and opening up, Shenzhen has developed from a border "small fishing village" with a population of more than 300,000 to a modern international metropolis with a population of more than 20 million in a short period of 40 years. The secret behind it can be centered around the word "人".
Since its founding, Shenzhen has been a city open to talents. It was the first to break traditional geographical and institutional restrictions, attracting talents from all over the country, and pooling national efforts for construction. As early as the establishment of the SAR, many strategies to attract talents that attracted national attention were introduced. This includes transferring rural household registration to Shenzhen household registration, and Shenzhen arranges jobs for family members who have no jobs; allocates housing for engineers and senior engineers; hires talents with high salaries, and gives them freedom to stay after the employment period expires, etc.
For example, Shekou launched a nationwide open recruitment of talents in 1981, breaking the practice of dispatching cadres from superior departments and setting a precedent for the reform of the personnel system in New China. In 1983, Shekou took the lead in implementing a salary reform plan. Regardless of level or position, salary was determined based on ability and contribution.
For a time, talents from all over the country were attracted to fly southeast, and many people were called by the vibrant vitality of the SAR. Xu Shaochun is one of them, who gave up his "iron rice bowl" to pursue a career in Shenzhen.
In 1990, Xu Shaochun went to work in an accounting firm in Shenzhen with 368 yuan of pension insurance money. Soon after, he resigned again and borrowed 5,000 yuan to buy a 286 computer and founded Shenzhen Aipu Computer Technology. Ltd. This was the famous Kingdee Software Company in the future.
According to incomplete statistics, from 1997 to 1999, the Shenzhen Talent Market only received more than 3.5 million job seekers like Xu Shaochun from all over the country. When the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established in 1980, there were only one tractor repairman and one veterinarian among the city’s technical staff; today, this number has exceeded 2 million, and the number of Shenzhen’s science and technology workers has increased nearly 1 million times in 40 years.
Such a large-scale recruitment of talents is not difficult to remind people of the popular slogan "When you come, you will be a Shenzhen native". Some scholars have linked Shenzhen’s innovative temperament to its immigration characteristics, explaining why the “city of immigrants” can become a city of innovation. "Most of the early immigrants to Shenzhen abandoned their original stable lives and were willing to endure the uncertainty brought by migration to meet their high expectations for the future. This cultural trait is especially suitable for high-tech fields with an IT background. Innovation.”
In the past 40 years, Shenzhen’s resident population has increased approximately 42 times. Until now, Shenzhen still adopts a loose household registration policy, and there are no restrictions on the settlement of people with a college degree or above. Shenzhen revealed in the 2020 Government Work Report that in 2019, the city introduced 280,000 new talents.
Dai Ming, a professor at Jinan University’s Hong Kong and Macao Economic Research Institute, worked as a researcher and R&D director in Shenzhen Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone from 1999 to 2004, and has done extensive research on the development of Shenzhen Special Economic Zones.
In his view, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was a city with "four no's" when it was first established - no heavy and chemical industrial base, no major national projects, no direct investment by large Western multinational companies, and no resources and environment. With strength, why does Shenzhen achieve rapid rise?
Many scholars believe that Shenzhen’s rise is due to its location advantages and its proximity to Hong Kong; some scholars believe that it is due to its policy advantages, including tax incentives and land security, which have brought huge dividends; It can be summed up as effective government plus efficient market.
Dai Ming believes that location theory, policy theory, and strategy theory all have certain truths, but they are somewhat "out of focus." Among the many coastal and border special economic zones, Shenzhen’s success is closely related to the institutional innovation behind it.
For example, after Deng Xiaoping’s speech in the South in 1992, people from all over the country came to visit and study in special economic zones. Regulations on private science and technology enterprises also gradually affected the whole country, and private science and technology enterprises began to bloom all over the country.
As early as February 1987, the Shenzhen Municipal Government promulgated the "Interim Regulations on Encouraging Scientific and Technological Personnel to Establish Private Scientific and Technological Enterprises", which was the first time in the country that scientific and technological personnel could use cash, physical objects and personally owned Industrial property rights such as patents, proprietary technologies, and trademark rights are invested as shares, and the dividends and dividends they deserve are distributed.
This means recognizing the value of intellectual property rights, which directly leads to a wave of entrepreneurship represented by Huawei, and also lays an institutional foundation for the development of Shenzhen's high-tech industry and the improvement of innovation capabilities.
Zhang Siping, chairman of the Shenzhen Innovation and Development Research Institute, also agrees with this. He said that Shenzhen has introduced a series of policies for high-tech development since the 1990s. For example, establish and improve different levels of financial service systems, talent service systems, high-tech trading market systems with the Hi-Tech Fair as the main platform, regional service systems with high-tech parks as the platform, and high-tech industry services represented by Huaqiangbei. product supporting market system.
“It is precisely because of the above-mentioned comprehensive government institutional innovation service system that it provides important support for the continuous development and growth of Shenzhen High-tech.” Zhang Siping said.
Not only that, Shenzhen has become the source of institutional innovation, and many institutional reforms have been promoted nationwide through it. According to statistics from the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress in 2017, more than one-third of the laws and regulatory documents formulated by Shenzhen in the past 25 years were implemented on a trial basis when there was no precedent for national and local legislation. These laws and regulations not only protect Shenzhen's development , and also provided a reference blueprint for the country.
For example, this year the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress plans to submit 29 new legislative items for review, including 14 newly formulated regulations. Among them, the personal bankruptcy system has "broken the ice" in Shenzhen, and technology companies are expected to implement "different shares for the same shares" "rights", behind Shenzhen's legislative exploration is the background of the city's reform.
The 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone is also a critical year for the comprehensive rollout and in-depth advancement of the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Shenzhen Pilot Demonstration Zone. Many scholars have discussed how to view the future development of Shenzhen.
The interviewed experts believe that in the race to become a global benchmark city, failure to advance will lead to retreat, and slow advancement will also lead to retreat. However, continuing to promote institutional innovation and modernization of social governance are the new goals given to Shenzhen by the country. mission. As the forefront of reform and opening up and a highland of technological innovation, Shenzhen has strong development dividends and the ability to continuously create dividends. It should contribute to the exploration and supply of China's solutions. I believe this is why the central government has established Shenzhen as a pioneer demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics. the original intention.
Guo Wanda said that in the course of 40 years of development, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has experienced twists and turns, but its status as "Mr. Key" has never changed.
In 1992, with the establishment of Pudong New Area, China formed a new pattern of opening up along the coast, along the river, along the border and inland cities. The "special zone is not a special zone" was once very popular, and the debate continued until 1995.
At about the same time, Shenzhen began to stop registering "three come and one supplement" enterprises, and clearly proposed in the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" to build Shenzhen into a high-tech industrial development and production base, once again leading the country Industrial structure transformation. Facts have proved that most of the later national industrial transformation drew on Shenzhen’s reform experience.
In 2002, an article titled "Shenzhen, Who Have Abandoned You" once again put Shenzhen on the forefront, and "industrial relocation" became the focus of heated discussions across the country.
Shenzhen began to proactively face a new round of transformation and vigorously promoted "vacating the cage and replacing the birds". In a few years, more than 16,000 companies even left Shenzhen and ushered in a large number of innovative enterprises. Technology companies. Shenzhen is once again at the forefront of the country in transforming and upgrading from traditional manufacturing to smart manufacturing.
Fan Gang, vice president of the China Economic Structural Reform Research Association, believes that the special zone model may be copied by others, but the special zone functions will not. The most fundamental point is innovation and pioneering. Especially with the superposition of the three zones of the Special Economic Zone, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Pilot Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, Shenzhen must continue to play its role as a special zone and lead the way in all aspects.
The "Opinions on Supporting Shenzhen in Building a Pioneer Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council clearly stated that by 2025, Shenzhen's economic strength and development quality will be among the top cities in the world. The investment intensity and industrial innovation capabilities are world-class, the cultural soft power has been greatly improved, the quality of public services and ecological environment has reached the international advanced level, and a modern, international and innovative city has been built.
Cao Wenlian, vice president of the China Economic Structural Reform Research Association, believes that the reason why the central government chose Shenzhen as a pilot demonstration area is based on Shenzhen’s unique geographical location, development foundation, accumulated reform experience, talents and Institutional advantages, etc.
Standing at a new starting point for the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Special Economic Zone, Shenzhen's development has also entered a new historical stage. How to continue to play the role of China's leading technological innovation, recreate Huawei and Tencent in the new era, and explore social governance To modernize China's plan, Shenzhen still needs to rely on continuous reforms.
(Authors: Li Zhen, Wang Fan)