How Can Yangtze River Delta Region Join Hands to Make Key Breakthroughs and Continue Lead the Common Prosperity Drive in China? - 2022-09-02
Recently, the 2022 Yangtze River Delta Region Leaders Symposium was held in Shanghai. The meeting called for the Yangtze River Delta region to work together to make key breakthroughs in realizing high-level self-reliance in science and technology, building world-class industrial clusters, promoting common prosperity, and achieving eco-friendly and green development, better play its role as an economic ballast, a source of driving force for development, and a test ground for reform, better represent the country to participate in international cooperation and competition, and better showcase the bright prospects of Chinese-style modernization.
Common prosperity is an essential feature and goal of socialism. It is also a fundamental principle of Chinese socialism. The Yangtze River Delta region has always been in the forefront of the country in promoting the practice of common prosperity. The central government has entrusted Zhejiang Province with the major mission of building itself into “a pioneering demonstration zone for achieving common prosperity through high-quality development", and relevant supporting measures have been introduced at the national level. On May 26, 2022, the Yangtze River Delta Region Demonstration Zone for Integrated Ecological and Green Development deliberated and adopted the Common Prosperity Implementation Plan of the Demonstration Zone, leaving a significant mark on the blueprint for common prosperity of the Yangtze River Delta region, breaking the provincial and municipal boundaries of common prosperity, and exploring a new path for the shared development of the Yangtze River Delta region from a broader and higher position.
Making the "cake" bigger and improving the fairness of distribution
The Yangtze River Delta region has good basic conditions for achieving common prosperity. From 2010 to 2020, residents’ average consumption expenditure in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai increased from RMB13,686 to RMB29,733, up by 117.25%, while employees’ average wages in urban non-public sectors rose from RMB44,967 to RMB117,501, an increase of 161.30%. At the same time, the average level of public services in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai has also significantly risen. As for public educational resources, from 2010 to 2020, the average student/teacher ratio in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai steadily fell from 17.40 to 16.39 in ordinary primary schools, from 13.99 to 12.06 in junior high schools, and from 14.28 to 11.13 in ordinary high schools. In terms of public medical resources, the average number of health technical personnel per 1,000 people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai increased from 4.86 in 2010 to 7.93 in 2020, while the average number of hospital beds per 10,000 people rose from 27.52 to 52.20.
While growing the "cake" for common prosperity, it is necessary to further improve the fairness of the distribution of the "cake". In the Yangtze River Delta region, the average per capita disposable income ratio between urban and rural residents steadily decreased from 2.56 in 2010 to 2.18 in 2020, and the gap between the highest and lowest per capita disposable income ratios of urban and rural residents in the region has converged year by year, down from 0.67 in 2010 to 0.41 in 2020. The average per capita consumption expenditure ratio between urban and rural residents fell from 2.33 in 2010 to 1.76 in 2020, and the difference between the highest and lowest ratios among Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai decreased from 0.87 in 2010 to 0.52 in 2020. The regional gap in public services has also narrowed year by year, so is the regional gap in the student/teacher ratios in ordinary junior and high schools. Among them, the ratio between the highest and lowest student/teacher ratios in ordinary high schools fell from 1.89 in 2010 to 1.58 in 2020, and the figure for junior high schools decreased from 1.37 to 1.29. In terms of regional disparity in public health care, the ratio between the highest and lowest numbers of health technical personnel per 1,000 people among Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai fell from 1.96 in 2010 to 1.26 in 2020, and the ratio between the highest and lowest number of hospital beds per 10,000 people decreased steadily from 1.35 to 1.06.
How should the Yangtze River Delta region step up work to promote common prosperity?
The 10th issue of Qiushi magazine this year published an important article written by General Secretary Xi Jinping, which is entitled Correctly Understand and Grasp the Major Theoretical and Practical Issues in China’s Development. In the article, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that in order to promote common prosperity, it is necessary to strengthen the employment first orientation in promoting high-quality development, give play to the function and role of distribution, and improve the public service policy system. Therefore, the Yangtze River Delta region should step up efforts focusing on the following aspects to promote common prosperity in the future:
Firstly, doing everything possible to increase residents' income. Although some cities in the Yangtze River Delta region have reached the urban income level of moderately developed countries, the per capita income of most urban residents in the region still lags far behind that of middle- and high-income countries. It is therefore necessary to strengthen the employment first orientation, increase the wage incomes of residents and broaden the "main channels" for increasing residents' income on the premise of achieving more sufficient and higher quality employment. It is imperative to give full play to the advantages of high-tech industry concentrations in the Yangtze River Delta region, raise the level of high-end industrial chains, and cultivate "income growth points" for residents. At the same time, there is also a need to further optimize the structure of distribution among the government, enterprises and residents, effectively increase the proportion of labor income in national income, and expand the "coverage" of income increase for residents.
Secondly, continuing to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas in the Yangtze River Delta region and optimize the income structure of rural residents. There is a need to steadily implement the rural revitalization strategy in the Yangtze River Delta region, increase investment in rural development, improve rural infrastructure construction, and consolidate the "strong foundation" for rural development. It is necessary to promote the deep integration of modern technologies and business models with rural industries, vigorously develop modern agriculture and digital agriculture, and promote the development of rural industries to "boost performance". It is essential to safeguard employment for key rural groups in the Yangtze River Delta region, improve the treatment of skilled agricultural personnel, increase rural residents’ incomes from business, transfer and property, and “add more channels” for rural residents to earn income. In the production and supply of agricultural products, rural talent training, agricultural science and technology services and other aspects, efforts should be made to "promote cooperation" in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Thirdly, adjusting the regional gap in average wages between industries and reaching an optimal income level. In light of the fairly large regional gap in the average wages of employees between some industries in the Yangtze River Delta region, it is necessary to establish a unified factor market system in the Yangtze River Delta region first and promote the cross-regional flow of labor, capital, technology, information and other factors. There is a need to optimize the allocation of talents and adjust the income gap between industries arising from the uneven distribution of human capital in the Yangtze River Delta region. Efforts should be made to strengthen the technological transformation of low-income industries in the Yangtze River Delta region, control the wage gap between industries and regions within a reasonable range, and simultaneously optimize and upgrade industrial structure. In addition, it is necessary to further promote industrial cooperation and technological exchange in the Yangtze River Delta region and explore industrial development modes of co-construction and sharing.
Fourthly, raising the level of public services in the Yangtze River Delta region and promoting the sharing of public services. There is a need to further strengthen investment in public services such as basic education, health care, and old-age care services in the Yangtze River Delta region, promote the equalization and high quality of basic public services, and achieve the "high-quality supply" of public services. Efforts should be made to promote the flow of high-quality public service resources in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai, so that education, health care, old-age care and other local resources can complement each other, and "cross-regional sharing" of public services can be realized. It is necessary to further explore the institutional standards, fiscal allocation, and inter-city settlement and other schemes for the co-construction and sharing of public services in the Yangtze River Delta region, and optimize the "strong institutional safeguard" for public services.
The authors are Deputy Director Zhou Haiwang and Assistant Researcher Liu Yubo of the Institute of Urban and Demographic Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
Source: Shanghai Observer
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