1. New progress and main achievements in development
The Western Development Strategy was launched in early 2000, but in fact it was in 1998 during the "Ninth Five-Year Plan" period that my country In response to the deflationary trend characterized by widespread oversupply, China began to implement "active fiscal policies". The government focused on large-scale infrastructure to stimulate economic growth. In accordance with the basic strategic assumptions of the Western Development Plan, in the early stages of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the focus of investment in the Western Region is still to improve infrastructure, with rural agricultural power, water conservancy, and comprehensive management of the ecological environment as the core. In the city, the core is the construction of transportation hubs, surrounding high-grade highways and communication facilities. There are now clearly visible changes in infrastructure conditions in the West.
At present, the information construction of "West-to-East Gas Transmission", "West-to-East Electricity Transmission", "Qinghai-Tibet Railway" and optical cable communications, as well as the large-scale development of water conservancy resources, the construction of railways, airports and high-grade highways The launch of a series of environmental protection projects has reached a climax of large-scale investment, and the effectiveness of the policy has begun to show. Investment has increased year by year, which is 6 and 3 percentage points higher than that of the eastern and central regions respectively.
The "agglomeration effect" of urbanization development has accelerated significantly. In the process of urbanization implemented in our country, urban expansion and construction characterized by the construction of new urban areas and the relocation of urban transformation centers have generally occurred in the western region. The development trend of urbanization has obvious characteristics of resource aggregation. Not only infrastructure investment has shown a trend towards cities Concentration, and emerging industries are also concentrated in cities.
The industrial structure of the western region is in a stage of transformation and change, advantageous industries are growing, and each province and region has different characteristics. Judging from the current actual development trend, there are two obvious characteristics; one is an industry with unique resource advantages, little external competition, broad market prospects, and sustainable market demand. Such as tourism with distinctive green livestock and agricultural products, rare mineral products, natural gas and hydropower, special natural landforms, and ethnic customs. The scale of these resources cannot be competed with outside the Prospect Zone. The second is the resource industry with regional monopoly market. Due to its vast territory, it provides space for the existence and development of some industries that meet specific market needs. For example, in industries such as steel, cement, and building materials in the west, transportation distance makes it difficult for external competitors to participate in competition within a certain region. At the same time, the large-scale demand generated by urban infrastructure construction in the region provides a long-term development foundation and local regional monopoly advantage for this kind of local production and local sales. These will become important growth poles for the western economy.
2. Problems in development
1. Unbalanced development in the western region.
The first is the imbalance of investment in natural endowments and historical stages of development. Amid the imbalance of natural endowments, the southwestern provinces are extremely rich in water resources but have little use of land resources. The biggest obstacle to economic development in some places in the northwest provinces and autonomous regions is the severe shortage of water resources. Second, the allocation of institutional resources is unbalanced. For example, the vast rural areas in the west have been separated from urban economic and industrial development in the long-term development process, and there is a huge gap between urban and rural areas. Third, the foundation of historical investment development is unbalanced. For example, Inner Mongolia's steel, aluminum smelting, military industry, Shaanxi's cotton spinning, Gansu's petrochemical, military industry, non-ferrous metals, cotton and wool spinning were all developed during the "First Five-Year Plan" and "Second Five-Year Plan" periods. Electronics, aviation, automobile manufacturing, and home appliances in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and other provinces were all invested during the "third-tier construction" period. Qinghai, Ningxia, Yunnan, Guangxi and other places had almost no strategic investment at that time. Although the production capacity of these industries has been expanded and transformed many times in the past few years, the basic technology and technology have not deviated from the international level of the 1980s. According to the depreciation life of fixed assets, the economic life of the enterprise has ended. Therefore, there are still greater investment issues in technological transformation and product updates, as well as sustainable development issues in the face of fierce competition in domestic and foreign markets.
2. The basic work of talent training and the utilization of talent resources.
Talent is the main factor for economic development, and the western region has a vast territory, dispersed population, numerous ethnic groups, and unequal educational opportunities.
The adult illiteracy rate is high, and there is a negative correlation between the adult illiteracy rate and the per capita GDP level. Especially in the vast impoverished mountainous areas, people's scientific, technological, knowledge and cultural quality are too low, which is the main influencing factor that makes it difficult for poverty-stricken areas to develop. In recent years, due to the separate financial resources of prefectures, counties, and townships, there has been a serious shortage of funds for compulsory education in poor areas; in the institutional reform, due to the lack of fiscal transfer payments, many primary and secondary schools in basic education have been reduced, and many children living in remote areas cannot receive full education. Compulsory education will be a major obstacle to the future development of rural areas in the west. At the same time, in many old industrial bases in the west, due to poor efficiency, poor conditions, and government departments at all levels not paying enough attention to the substantive issues of talent implementation, it is impossible to retain existing talents, let alone attract high-quality external talents. Therefore, there are still many problems in technological transformation and innovation in industry.
3. People-oriented comprehensive social development issues.
Social development means that on the basis of the growth of productive capacity, human beings basically eliminate poverty, achieve full employment, enjoy better health care, higher education levels, healthier spiritual life, and better jobs. environment. All economic development is aimed at improving human living conditions and improving the quality of human life. However, the per capita gap in development and poverty issues in the western region is relatively large. The remaining rural poor are mostly concentrated in remote western areas and minority areas with harsh natural conditions and backward infrastructure. At the same time, in economically underdeveloped areas, the living conditions for education, medical care, employment, ecological environment, per capita living conditions, and drinking water are relatively difficult.
3. Problems to be solved and studied in future development
The development of the western region is related to the country’s fundamental interests and the overall and long-term issues of the development strategic goals. It is an important issue to achieve The people of all ethnic groups in the country need to work together to progress, develop and prosper together. Therefore, development must be closely integrated with the country's overall development goals. Development should not only be carried out in stages, but also focus on studying outstanding issues in the development process and future strategic issues.
1. Each province and region must carefully study its own characteristics, give full play to its advantages and reduce its disadvantages.
The natural resource advantages in the west are unbalanced. Only by rationally allocating resources and improving the efficiency of resource allocation can we promote the coordinated development of the regional economy. The western region is now in the initial stage of industrialization, with an industrialization rate lower than the national average by 6 percentage points. The industrial output value only accounts for 1/10 of the country's total. Most of the major industries in the western region have gradually developed around its natural resource advantages. Such resource-oriented industries have certain rationality in the early stages of industry and can contribute to economic development. However, with the continuous advancement of industrialization, especially in the modern economic era where the knowledge economy has emerged, natural resources and general labor resources have declined relatively, and their limitations have become more and more obvious, while technology, management, information, patents, brands, networks The role of acquired resources such as the environment and innovative talents has gradually become more important. Therefore, the western region should cultivate and create competitive advantages for enterprises in industrial development, change the past situation of high dependence on local resources, gradually transform from a resource-oriented strategy to a market-oriented strategy, and focus on talent cultivation and introduction. In enterprise investment, strengthen technological development, strengthen management, and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.
2. Accelerate the research and development of talent strategy in the western region.
In the western region, the quality of the labor force is low and the scientific and technological innovation capabilities are not high, which has become an important bottleneck affecting economic development and social competitiveness. In the development of the western region, it is necessary to re-examine and plan the development of education and training and the development of human resources, and turn potential advantages into huge practical advantages. Judging from the precedents of world economic development, in the history of world development, there have been three successful examples of backward countries catching up with the development of advanced countries. For example, the United States is catching up with the United Kingdom, Japan is catching up with the United States, and South Korea is catching up with Western European countries. The development of these countries is not only the rapid growth of per capita GDP, but more importantly, the accelerated accumulation of human resources. Therefore, the development of the western region must establish that human resources are the primary resource for economic and social development, and change the goal of talent training from meeting the needs of traditional industrialization to meeting the needs of new industrialization and building a well-off society in an all-round way.
Implement the transformation of education and human resource development from academic qualifications to competency-based to improve their production capacity, employability, and entrepreneurial abilities. In the implementation of the talent strategy, governments at all levels in the central and western regions should speed up multi-level training and establish policy mechanisms to promote outstanding talents to work at grassroots and hard-working places in the western region. We must respect knowledge, encourage innovation, implement fair competition, and improve the incentive system to enable outstanding talents to stand out and create a good environment for applying talents.
3. We must adhere to the people-oriented approach and establish a comprehensive and coordinated view of sustainable development.
Poverty is an important root cause of many social problems, and the lack of employment opportunities or insufficient employment is the main root cause of poverty. Only by accelerating economic development and creating more job opportunities can we promote the all-round development of people. In the western region, poverty alleviation problems still exist in the vast impoverished mountainous areas and minority areas. In the past, the poverty problems of enterprises and urban residents built in the "First Five-Year Plan", "Second Five-Year Plan" and "Third-Line" periods were still prominent. Therefore, the government must improve production and living conditions in underdeveloped areas as soon as possible and improve the self-development capabilities of underdeveloped areas. The state must adopt fiscal transfer payments to strengthen infrastructure, public utilities, and environmental protection in poor areas. Actively implement work-for-relief measures to increase farmers' income, expand rural employment, improve their production and living conditions, and enhance their own development capabilities. The government should improve the soft and hard investment environment in backward areas, create more development opportunities for backward areas, create favorable conditions, alleviate the trend of widening regional gaps, and gradually narrow the gap in living welfare between regional residents, especially in ethnic minority areas and poverty-stricken areas. Regional differences.
4. Market mechanisms must be fully utilized.
The development of the western region is a policy act of the government, and the means of development must follow the principles of marketization. It is necessary to accelerate the transformation of government functions in accordance with the decisions of the Third Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee on several issues regarding the improvement of the socialist market economic system. The government's main responsibility in a market economy is to solve market failures and promote social equity. The task of the government should be to transform the institutional environment during development, establish a good legal foundation, invest in basic social services and infrastructure, protect the less able-bodied classes, and protect the natural environment. We will also formulate strategic plans and preferential policies for the mid- to long-term and short-term development of the western region, and deal with outstanding issues that arise during development. Cultivate market investment entities, establish regional property rights trading markets, regulate and maintain market order, and establish and cultivate the credit awareness of local governments, enterprises and citizens. Establish and maintain local image and visibility to attract capital and talents.