Overseas Chinese are a huge wealth and the most important resource for attracting investment. After the reform and opening up, more than 80% of the foreign capital directly absorbed by Shantou is overseas Chinese.
Second, the private economy is relatively developed. Shantou's private economy started earlier and developed better. In the early days of reform and opening-up, Shantou Special Zone took the lead in proposing "four liberalization" (broadening horizons, relaxing policies, making bold experiments, and going all out), implementing "three together" (one, two, three industries, large and medium-sized enterprises, collective economy, horizontal joint economy, and individual and private economy), and fully developing the private economy.
Private investment accounts for more than 60% of the city's investment, the number of private enterprises accounts for more than 90% of the total number of enterprises in the city, and the output value of private industries above designated size accounts for about 60% of the total industrial output value above designated size. The pace of listing of enterprises has been accelerated, and the ability of independent innovation has been continuously enhanced.
Third, the location conditions are good. Shantou is close to the Western Pacific International Golden Waterway, and the urban area is 0/87 nautical miles from Hongkong/KLOC-and 0/80 nautical miles from Kaohsiung/KLOC-in Taiwan Province Province. It has always been a product distribution center in eastern Guangdong, southeastern Jiangxi and southwestern Fujian, and it is also an important channel for the mainland to face overseas.
Xiamen-shenzhen railway is under construction, Shantou Airport is expected to open to the outside world, and the pace of port construction will be accelerated. With the fundamental improvement of transportation infrastructure, the location advantage will continue to increase. At the same time, Shantou is the closest city in Guangdong Province to Taiwan Province Province, and Nan 'ao Island Port is only 102 nautical mile away from Magong Port in Penghu, Taiwan. The popularity of the two places is close, and the businessmen are connected. There is much to be done to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between Shantou and Taiwan Province.
Fourth, it has accumulated certain development conditions. After 30 years of reform and opening up, Shantou's comprehensive economic strength has been continuously enhanced, providing a relatively solid material support for the accelerated economic and social development. Moreover, the current economic development has maintained an upward trend. From 2002 to 2007, the regional GDP increased by 5.7%, 8.8%, 1. 1.3% and 1.6% respectively.
At the same time, since the reform and opening up, a number of transportation infrastructures such as Shenzhen-Shantou Expressway, Shantou-Fen Expressway and Guangmeishan Railway have been built successively, forming a modern three-dimensional transportation network with seaports and airports as the center and high-grade highways and railways as the backbone. Science and technology, education, talents, information, business and other foundations are good, and the city has strong agglomeration and radiation capabilities.
Extended data:
Shantou more than 30 years ago, due to various reasons, the economy was not developed, even lagging behind the same type of brother cities. After visiting Shantou, Wu Nansheng, then secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, thought that Shantou is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese, and Shantou area has favorable conditions for giving priority to economic development. Can we follow some practices of foreign countries and surrounding areas and set up export processing zones to develop Shantou's economy? His idea was immediately recognized by the responsible comrades of the prefectural party Committee at that time, and also endorsed by the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee.
According to the instructions of the Central Committee and Guangdong Province on setting up a pilot export special zone in Shantou, Shantou prefectural committee started a series of preparatory work for the pilot project of special economic zones in early 1980, and decided to set up Shantou special economic zone in the northwest of long hu cun in the east of Shantou with an area of 1.6 square kilometers. In August, the Guangdong Special Economic Zone Management Committee set up an office in Shantou to be responsible for the preparatory work of Shantou Special Economic Zone.
198 1 year 1 1 month, the office was officially renamed Shantou Special Economic Zone Management Committee, and its director was Liu Feng, member of the Standing Committee of Shantou District Committee and deputy secretary of Shantou Municipal Committee. Shantou Special Economic Zone takes the dune area of 1.6 square kilometers in the northwest of long hu cun as the starting area, and has become one of the first special economic zones in China by virtue of its obvious geographical advantages and hometown of overseas Chinese.
During this period, the main task given by the central government and the province to Shantou Special Economic Zone is to set up an industrial export processing zone. Shantou Special Economic Zone, with an area of 1.6 square kilometers, is called "Small Special Zone", which is the window and experimental field of Shantou's opening to the outside world in the early days of reform and opening up, and its construction policy has been affirmed by the central leading comrades.
At the beginning of 1984, with the promulgation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's major strategic decision on further opening to the outside world, there were more open cities, and the defects of "small special zones" gradually emerged. In June, 1984, 1 1, the State Council officially approved the appropriate adjustment of the regional scope of Shantou Special Economic Zone. The adjusted Shantou Special Economic Zone covers an area of 52.6 square kilometers.
The expansion of regional area marks the liberation of Shantou Special Economic Zone from the industrial processing mode of 1.6 square kilometers. From then on, Shantou Special Economic Zone began to develop into a comprehensive export-oriented economy with industry as the mainstay and industry and trade as the combination, that is, from the initial stage to the development stage.
By the end of 1980s, the 52.6-square-kilometer SEZ still could not meet the needs of the rapid economic development of the SEZ, especially the problem of "one city, two systems" in Shantou, which obviously hampered Shantou's further reform, opening up and economic development. 1991April, the State Council approved the expansion of Shantou Special Economic Zone to the whole urban area with a total area of 234 square kilometers from June.
This fundamentally straightened out the management system of the special zone, and the mode of combining the management of the special zone with the regional administrative management system is conducive to gradually establishing an administrative management system suitable for the economic operation of the special zone, and is also more conducive to the Shantou Municipal Party Committee and the municipal government to concentrate financial and material resources on the economic construction of the special zone.