Source: [People's Daily Central Kitchen - Uncle Hai's Economic Studio] Did you know that 40% of the country's sports shoes are produced in Jinjiang, Fujian, 70% of socks are produced in Zhuji, Zhejiang, and 75% of eyeglass lenses are produced in Danyang, Jiangsu. The specialty in

Source: [People's Daily Central Kitchen - Uncle Hai's Economic Studio]

Did you know that 40% of the country's sports shoes are produced in Jinjiang, Fujian, 70% of socks are produced in Zhuji, Zhejiang, and 75% of eyeglass lenses are produced in Danyang, Jiangsu . The specialty industries of these counties not only drive local economic development, but also allow more and more young people in small towns to find satisfactory jobs and buy houses to settle down at home.

The "Opinions on Promoting Urbanization Construction with County Towns as an Important Carrier" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") recently issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State pointed out that professional functional counties should be actively cultivated. This is also the first time that the expression "professional functional county" appears in the central document .

What is a professional functional county?

Tonghui Hui, a professor at the School of Agriculture and Rural Development of Renmin University of China and director of the Rural Governance Research Center, told Haimei that professional functional counties have two meanings: First, the county has certain characteristics and influence in the country, and even plays a leading role in certain industries across the country. Second, the county town has a significant driving role in local rural development and regional development pattern. Places like Jinjiang, Zhuji, and Danyang are typical representatives of professional functional counties.

According to the "Opinions", cultivating professional functional counties is to support counties with resources, transportation and other advantages to develop their professional expertise, cultivate and develop characteristic economies and pillar industries, strengthen industrial platform support, improve employment absorption capabilities, and develop into advanced manufacturing and commercial circulation , cultural tourism and other professional functional county towns. Support border counties to improve infrastructure, strengthen functions such as public services and border trade, and enhance population agglomeration capabilities and the ability to defend and consolidate borders.

Compared with large and medium-sized cities, the economic scale of county towns is small and the industrial system is relatively simple. However, through the cultivation of specific industries and industrial clusters, they can develop in the direction of "small but beautiful, small and specialized".

In recent years, the Rongjiang County Industrial Park in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province has formed an industrial system mainly focused on deep processing of wood products. As of now, there are 6,446 market entities in the park, and the park's industrial output value will reach 1.537 billion yuan in 2021. The picture shows on May 22, workers process plates at a wood processing factory in Rongjiang County Industrial Park. Photo by Fan Hui (published by Xinhua News Agency) In what aspects are the professional functions of

reflected?

Currently, many counties in China already have professional functions. For example, in terms of advanced manufacturing, many counties such as Haining in Zhejiang and Jinjiang in Fujian have formed industrial clusters of “one town, one product” and “one village, one product”. Counties with transportation location advantages consciously promote the formation of local and regional central markets and make great strides in the direction of commercial circulation. Some counties with dense ecological resources have become hot spots for rural tourism. There are also counties in main agricultural producing areas and border counties mentioned in the "Opinions", which also have certain professional functions.

Haimei was surprised to find that the county can also strengthen emerging industries. On May 20, the United Nations Global Geographic Information Knowledge and Innovation Center was officially established in Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. This is the first directly affiliated specialized agency established by the United Nations in China. In the past few years, Deqing County started from scratch, laid a solid industrial foundation, attracted professional talents, and successfully built a "geographic information town".

What changes will happen to the county by cultivating professional functional counties?

Today, many counties with well-developed industries have relatively high levels of infrastructure construction and public services, and their livability is closer to that of nearby central cities. The medical level in many counties continues to improve, and residents no longer have to travel to big cities for medical treatment; cultural and entertainment projects are becoming increasingly abundant, with cinemas, cafes, and gyms everywhere, showing vitality.

Haimei learned that a professional and functional county should have both production and life like this. "Cultivation of professional and functional county towns is not to make the county town a transfer station for the rural population to flow to the city, but to make it a place where people can live and work in peace and contentment for a long time." Tonghui said that population agglomeration will drive a more balanced industrial structure, promote the development of public services, and strengthen the county town overall sustainable development capabilities, thereby contributing to a more coordinated regional development pattern.

Jinjiang International Shoe Textile City is the largest shoe material trading market in Jinjiang City, Fujian Province, a traditional shoe textile industry base.At present, the average daily export volume of the shoe and textile city's procurement trade is approximately 48.25 million yuan. The picture shows a salesperson from a shoe material company cutting shoemaking fabric in Jinjiang International Shoe and Textile City. Photo by Zhou Yi (published by Xinhua News Agency)

How to build a professional functional county in the future?

Haimei read the "Opinions" and found that developing characteristic pillar industries is the key.

"Opinions" proposes to enhance industrial support capabilities and enhance the functions of industrial platforms. For example, we should focus on developing industries with obvious comparative advantages, strong ability to promote agriculture and rural areas, and large employment capacity, coordinate the cultivation of local industries and undertake the transfer of external industries, and promote industrial transformation and upgrading. Relying on platforms such as various development zones, industrial clusters, and entrepreneurship parks for migrant workers returning home, we will guide the concentrated development of industries in counties.

The process of industrial agglomeration is also the agglomeration of talents, which can drive the transformation and upgrading of counties. Cao County in Shandong Province, which became popular on short video platforms last year, used to be an agricultural county with a weak industrial base and the largest number of poor people in the province. In recent years, Caoxian County has seized the opportunity of digital sinking in the Internet era and vigorously promoted the sales of performance costumes and other products on e-commerce platforms. It currently has 17 Taobao towns and 151 Taobao villages, creating employment for more than 200,000 people in the county. Not only It has helped a large number of young people in small towns find satisfactory jobs at home and has also gathered many digital talents.

Fu Wei, an associate researcher at the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Haimei that since the reform and opening up, my country's economy and society have achieved tremendous development. One of the important factors is the growth of many dynamic industrial forms in the county. Entering a new stage of development, industrial clusters within counties also assume important functions and are an important foundation for expanding domestic demand and realizing dual domestic and international cycles. From this perspective, the significance of cultivating professional functional counties is not limited to the county itself. To achieve this goal, we must not only have pillar industries and retain local youth, but also attract foreign talents and provide high-level public services for talents.

looks forward to the emergence of more professional functions!

Editors of this issue: Bai Tianliang, Nie Chuanqing

This article comes from [People’s Daily Central Kitchen-Uncle Hai Economic Studio] and represents only the author’s opinion. The National Party Media Information Public Platform provides information release and dissemination services.

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