Shenzhen, a trailblazer of China's deepened reform, opening up

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(Xinhua) 11:00, December 20, 2023

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 28, 2023 shows the east tower of Lingdingyang bridge and west artificial island of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan link in south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

SHENZHEN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Building upon transformative strides taken over the past decades, the southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen is embarking on a new chapter in the country's reform and opening-up efforts.

Shenzhen, once a small fishing village, became a testing ground for China's reform and opening-up when it was designated as one of the country's first special economic zones in 1980.

It evolved into a massive manufacturing center, with assembly lines churning out computers, phones, and other gadgets for many foreign brands. However, escalating labor costs, resource bottlenecks and the changing global situation have made it challenging to sustain this development pattern.

The city is now again at the forefront of China's transformation to high-quality and innovation-driven development, playing a trailblazing role in the country's deepened reform and higher-level opening-up.

NEW MISSION

Known as a paragon of opening-up and development, Shenzhen has developed into a key economic hub, with its GDP topping 3.23 trillion yuan (about 455.04 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022.

As China's reform has entered deep water, grappling with domestic institutional and mechanistic barriers amid a complex external environment, Shenzhen harbors great hopes in pioneering reform as "a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics." This new mission was assigned to Shenzhen in 2019.

Under a plan for the 2020-2025 period, measures to improve the market-based allocation of factors of production, business environment, and overall utilization of urban space, among others, are Shenzhen's leading attempts amid China's efforts to comprehensively deepen reforms and expand all-around opening-up.

The plan has pledged to pilot comprehensive reform measures, granting Shenzhen greater autonomy in crucial areas and key processes. The goal is to develop replicable experience that can be implemented in other regions.

Three years on, 40 kinds of practices and innovative measures that have proven successful in the city have been underscored by the central government to be replicated in other parts of the country.

In Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the Shenzhen-Harbin industrial park, which draws on the experience of Shenzhen including streamlining administrative approvals, project bidding and tax incentives for talent, is attracting more and more high-tech companies and supporting the local economy.

Shenzhen's success is not accidental and is not only fit for the city. It is the epitome of China's 40-plus years of reform and opening-up, and can help other countries, said Tao Yitao, director of the China Center for Special Economic Zone Research, a think tank under Shenzhen University.

The think tank is working to introduce Shenzhen's experience to other countries, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Kazakhstan, and help them in their building of special economic zones, according to Tao.

CENTER OF INNOVATION

"Shenzhen has turned to supercharging high-tech sectors and trying to reinvent itself as a center of innovation. It's a smart way of development," Tao said.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) carrying food package is landing at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Dec. 19, 2023. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

The city of more than 17.66 million people is now home to some of China's biggest tech players like Huawei, Tencent, BYD and DJI, and is attracting young talent and entrepreneurs from all over the country, as well as from abroad.

"Talent, a complete industrial system as well as an efficient and supportive government combined make Shenzhen a perfect place for innovation," said Li Luyang, co-founder and CEO of VisionNav Robotics, a company that develops and produces driverless forklifts.

"Seriously speaking, in Shenzhen, I can build a prototype twice faster than elsewhere," said Li, who came to Shenzhen after graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"When we moved to Shenzhen's Hetao zone for sci-tech innovation cooperation in 2020, we only had 75 employees, and now the number has increased to 500 while our business revenue recorded 10-fold expansion during the past three years," he said.

In Shenzhen, innovation platforms such as Hetao and Guangming Science City are giving full play to the potential of talent like Li and fostering tech start-ups, and have become new drivers of innovation.