The construction of Xi metropolitan area has been discussed for many years, and it is getting hotter and hotter. At first, it was proposed to build an "international city", then it was discussed in Guanzhong urban agglomeration, and then it was studied the so-called "Guanzhong" urban circle across provinces. As a theoretical worker, I have been paying more attention to this issue, and I also think that this issue is of great significance and should be "heated" with a positive attitude. On the other hand, I also have my own ideas about how to do it. So I use the word "cold thinking" to express some of my views.
New understanding of urbanization road
To discuss Xi 'an's urban construction, there is a premise to understand the urbanization road. Because we attach importance to urban construction and strive to make it bigger, the essence is to play the role of urban construction in urbanization. Through years of research, I think that China's reform has made great innovation on the road of urbanization, which is naturally related to Xi 'an's urban construction thought.
The traditional urbanization mode in the world is a road from the early stage of industrialization. The typical feature of this path is the urbanization of population, that is, it advocates the concentration of population in cities and the population of cities as the main criterion to measure the level of urbanization. This model is based on the opposition between urban and rural areas, and its transformation process is the transfer of rural labor absorbed by cities and the decline of rural economy. It seems that the more people a city has, the bigger and more developed it is. However, with the progress of the times, this model is constantly challenged. Especially in the reform of China, represented by the developed eastern regions, a new urbanization road has emerged, that is, under the idea of coordinating urban and rural development, through agricultural industrialization and the establishment of industries and various non-agricultural industries in rural areas, the accumulation and investment capacity of rural areas has been greatly strengthened, and the transformation from farming to labor, farmers to citizens, and rural areas to cities and towns has been completed accordingly, thus fundamentally diluting the boundaries between urban and rural areas, thus realizing the integration and integrated development of urban and rural areas.
Obviously, on this new road of urbanization, farmers are not marginalized and waiting for others to absorb them, but become entrepreneurs themselves; The countryside is not declining, but more developed; In the final analysis, it is not to let farmers "enter the city", but to "build the city" through farmers. The essence of urbanization is mainly three: first, the transformation of rural production mode, the transfer of farmers to non-agricultural industries in the adjustment of industrial structure; Second, urban-rural economic ties, market integration, mutual benefit and integration; Third, on the basis of the synchronous development of urban and rural economy, the rural population will live a life similar to that of people in the same city. On the other hand, for the city itself, whether it develops well or not is the real "influential big city". The key lies not in the population and the size of the land, but in the strength of the economy and its influence on the surrounding areas, which has no competitive advantage at home and abroad. How Xi 'an is built, whether it is an international city or a city, a regional city or a provincial city, depends on the level and scope of its actual competitiveness and influence. I think this should be a basic starting point for us to study the development of Xi 'an city.
Is Xi "big" or "small" now?
To speed up the urban construction of Xi 'an, we must correctly evaluate the development status of Xi 'an. This should be told by facts. First of all, it should be said that Xi 'an is relatively large. Because according to the data provided by China City Statistics -2005, compared with the national cities, except for the four municipalities directly under the central government, the population of Xi ranks sixth and the population of municipal districts ranks third; The area of municipal districts is the eighth, which is quite prominent in the whole country. Xi 'an city has a population of 4,645,400, which is second only to Wuguang in the provincial capital cities. In addition, Xi 'an has a superior history as an ancient capital of the 13th Dynasty, so when it comes to Xi 'an, we can't underestimate it at home and abroad.
However, is Xi big and strong? It's hard to say. In terms of population and area, it is indeed large, but in terms of economy, it is very poor. In 2004, the total output value of Xi's safe city reached 10.9587 billion yuan, including 99.908 million yuan in municipal districts, ranking as 18 and 15 respectively in the capital cities of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. According to per capita GDP, it is the fifth from the bottom and the third from the bottom respectively. Obviously, when discussing whether Xi 'an is big or not, we seem to come to a conclusion: in terms of population and area, it is neither small nor big, but in terms of economic development and per capita contribution capacity, it is still very small, far behind the level of similar cities in China.