Located in Changle District of Fuzhou, Binhai New Town, with a planning area of 188 square kilometers, has generated a total of 339 projects, with an annual industrial output value of more than 250 billion yuan. It has become a sub-center of Fuzhou, an important gateway to this hub city along the Maritime Silk Road, a key base of modern industries on the southeast coast, as well as an important region of cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation.

From March 22 to 25, 2021, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of China and Chairman of Central Military Commission, visited Fujian. The picture shows Xi visiting Fujian Forecam Optics Co., Ltd. in Fuzhou on the afternoon of March 24. Photo by Ju Peng, Xinhua News Agency.

Lin Baojin, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, told the research team, "Binhai New Town is the focus of Fuzhou’s urban development plan of “going eastwards and southwards, along the Minjiang River and towards the ocean”. The development of Fuzhou, including Binhai New Town, lies fundamentally in the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and the visionary strategy formulated by President Xi Jinping when he was working in Fuzhou. From 1990 to 1996, Comrade Xi Jinping, the then Secretary of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, made a long-term plan for the city. He stressed, “We should not only consider a city’s development goal for the next 10 and 20 years, but also for the next 30, 50 and even 100 years”; He also said, “Rivers and seas are Fuzhou’s advantage, Fuzhou’s opportunity, Fuzhou’s hope, and Fuzhou’s engine for development.” It is President Xi who first put forward the development strategy of “Maritime Fuzhou”. For the city’s leapfrog development, he himself has drawn its blueprints, including "3820" Initiative，Minjiang Golden Triangle Economic Circle, “Maritime Fuzhou”, and the strategy of building a modern international city. Among them, the "3820" Initiative contained three steps of Fuzhou's development; that is, through 3 years, 8 years, 20 years of efforts, in 2010 Fuzhou would reach or come close to a level of development same as that of medium-developed countries or regions in Asia. Also, Fuzhou would form an all-dimensional, multi-tiered pattern of opening up, with the Fuzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone as the front, the old urban area as the base, the coastal counties (cities) as the north and south wings, the mountainous counties as the rear support, and Minjiang River Basin and the Northeast Fujian as the hinterland.

The interior of Binhai New Town Planning Exhibition Hall. Photo by the Publicity Department of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee 

Guided by the "3820" Initiative, Binhai New Town, since its official launch, has been promoting reform and innovation as an important driver for development. Meanwhile, it has been proactively introducing a number of high-quality projects that are large in scale or function as platforms, so as to lay a solid foundation for its city-industry integration, and to create a new engine to promote Fuzhou’s high-quality development. Southeast China Big Data Industrial Park, as represented by China Mobile (Fuzhou, Fujian) Data Center, is an industrial platform built with intensified efforts in Binhai New Town, and it has now become an important support to foster the development of “Digital Fuzhou” industries. The park has registered 769 enterprises with a total registered capital of more than 59 billion yuan. With a number of big data industry infrastructures such as provincial-level "E-government" and "E-business" platforms being completed, various national-level platforms such as the National Research Center of Health Data and the National Application Center of Big Data in Land and Resources were also introduced. Further, a number of leading enterprises in the fields of information technology and medical health have been stationed there.

In Binhai New Town, emerging industries are blossoming everywhere while traditional industries are being transformed and upgraded with new vitality. Founded in 1984, Highsun Holding Group (HSCC), after years of hard work in Changle District and persistence in real economy, has grown from "grassroots industry" to an advanced manufacturing enterprise group integrating chemical industry, chemical fiber and new materials. In 2018, HSCC successfully acquired the caprolactam business of Fibrant Group, becoming the world's largest caprolactam and ammonium sulfate producer. When talking about the extraordinary development path of the enterprise, Chen Jianlong, Chairman of HSCC, said with emotion that "During its more than 30 years in textile business, HSCC has always been seeking breakthroughs. In the new era, the development of HSCC has stepped up to a whole new level. In the past, the domestic high-end caprolactam products relied on import. Now, our projects will have an annual output of 1 million tons of caprolactam at full production capacity, freeing the domestic nylon enterprises from the dependence on foreign enterprises."

The exterior of Fujian Electronics & Information (Group) Co., Ltd. Photo by the Publicity Department of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee

Liao Haijun, District Mayor of Changle, said, “As the business environment and infrastructures continue to be improved, Binhai New Town has formed three functional zones: the northern airport zone, which is committed to developing air transportation industry and airport high-end manufacturing industry; the central core zone, which is an integrated urban functional zone consisting of the central business district, Southeast China Big Data Industrial Park, Changle East Railway Station and the Vocational Education Town; the southern seaport zone, which is the largest international grain logistics center along China’s southeast coast.

The Binhai New Town, following the development plan of “going eastwards and southwards, along the Minjiang River and towards the ocean”, has developed rapidly with each passing day and become an epitome of Fuzhou's leapfrog development since the 18th CPC National Congress. Over these years, the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee and Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government have firmly followed the strategic thoughts of President Xi, stuck to his blueprint, and promoted Fuzhou’s transformation from a riverside city to a maritime city. Particularly since the 18th CPC National Congress, Fuzhou has:

• achieved significant economic and social development, with its GDP exceeding 1.1 trillion yuan in 2021.

• promoted industrial development in terms of quality, efficiency and innovation, sped up in building modern industrial systems, and formed a certain scale of industrial systems of information technology, photoelectricity, biomedicine, hydrogen energy and other emerging industries.

• deepened reform and opening up, especially in the fields of state-owned enterprises, social governance, agriculture and rural areas, finance, investment and financing, and social undertakings, which continuously vitalizes the city’s development.

• improved people’s livelihood, with the per capita disposable income of residents increasing year by year, and various undertakings such as transportation, education, health care and elderly care developing soundly.

• built a thriving culture, with intensified efforts made on protecting historical and cultural heritage. Fuzhou has become a national demonstration zone for public cultural service system, a national cultural and tourism consumption pilot city, and has been listed as a national civilized city for four consecutive terms.

Lu Jing, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, Head of Publicity Department and United Front Work Department of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, said, "The exploration and practice of reform and opening up made by President Xi when he worked in Fuzhou is the invaluable asset and great drive for Fuzhou’s continuous development." 

“Fuzhou is a land of blessings and Fuzhou people are blessed people.” On his inspection tour to Fuzhou in March 2021, President Xi expressed his ardent hope for Fuzhou to build this coastal city with mountains and waters into a better one for people’s well-being. Fuzhou, a city developing along the Minjiang River and towards the ocean as per the direction given by President Xi and in application of the new development philosophy, is serving the new development pattern though developing into a modern socialist international city in all dimensions with high quality.

Source：QSTHEORY.CN