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recently, guizhou issued the "opinions on several policy measures to support zunyi in accelerating the construction of a provincial sub-center" (hereinafter referred to as the "opinions"), proposing to support zunyi in accelerating the construction of a provincial sub-center, the "bridgehead" for the province to connect with the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle, and the fulcrum city of the western land-sea new corridor. this move is considered to be the latest trend for zunyi and even guizhou to accelerate their integration into the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle.

zunyi is located in the northern part of guizhou province, at the junction of sichuan, chongqing and guizhou provinces. it borders chongqing city to the north and sichuan province to the west. it takes only 1 hour and 17 minutes to reach chongqing west station by high-speed rail from zunyi station, creating conditions for travel between zunyi and chengdu-chongqing area.

zhu xiaoling, consultant of the night tourism economy committee of the all-china federation of industry and commerce tourism industry chamber of commerce, has lived and worked in zunyi and chongqing. in an interview with china newsweek, she said that zunyi’s cultural identity with the chengdu-chongqing region is no less than that of the provincial capital guiyang. "zunyi dialect has a chongqing flavor, the dialects are similar, the culture is close, and it has deep roots in the chengdu-chongqing region."

zhu xiaoling believes that zunyi’s integration into the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle will help promote the overall coordinated development of the western region’s economy and society and form a regional economic pattern with complementary advantages and high-quality development.

in the traditional regional cooperation framework, cooperation of the same size is often regarded as an ideal model. however, the zunyi-chengdu-chongqing region is not equal in scale. in the process of integrating into the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle, how zunyi balances regional competition and cooperation and further deepens cooperation will also become a major challenge.

why chengdu and chongqing?

since ancient times, zunyi has had a natural connection with the chengdu-chongqing area, which is reflected in many aspects such as geographical location, historical origins, economic and cultural exchanges, and current development cooperation.

seven counties (cities) in zunyi are adjacent to the chengdu-chongqing area. for example, the southern part of chongqing qijiang district is surrounded by xishui county and tongzi county of zunyi on three sides. historically, zunyi and the chengdu-chongqing area have the same cultural origins and are influenced by the bashu cultural circle. they have the characteristics of social development with similar folk customs and the same cultural veins.

for a long time, zunyi has maintained close economic and cultural exchanges with the chengdu-chongqing region. as early as 1988, zunyi jointly initiated the chongqing economic cooperation zone with several cities including chongqing. since then, regional economic cooperation between southern chongqing and northern guizhou has become closer, and a series of cooperation agreements have been signed to jointly promote the construction and development of transportation infrastructure, industrial parks, and tourism industries.

in recent years, with the continuous improvement of transportation infrastructure construction in zunyi and chengdu-chongqing area, the exchanges between the two sides have become more frequent. in 2006, the opening of zun-chong expressway provided an opportunity for tongzi county, zunyi to develop rural tourism towards chongqing; in 2014, the full opening of chengdu-zigong-luzhou expressway shortened the distance between luzhou, sichuan and chishui, zunyi; in 2018, the full opening of chongqing-guizhou railway promoted zunyi to further integrate into chongqing's one-hour economic circle; in the same year, the full opening of jiangjin-xishui-gulin expressway opened up a new channel out of guizhou, and also became one of the important channels connecting guizhou, chongqing and chongqing, accelerating the pace of zunyi's integration into the chengdu-chongqing economic zone.

it is reported that the chongqing-guizhou high-speed railway (chongqing-guiyang high-speed railway, passing through zunyi station) under planning and construction has entered the bidding stage and is expected to start construction during the "15th five-year plan". the chongqing-guizhou high-speed railway can shorten the travel time between chongqing and guiyang to about 1 hour, and can strengthen the interconnection between the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle and the qianzhong economic zone.

it is understood that in the economic and social development during the 14th five-year plan period and the long-term goals for 2035, zunyi has always regarded its full integration into the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle as a major opportunity to climb higher, hoping to use the new western land-sea channel to accelerate the formation of an important growth pole for the province's development.

zunyi city scenery. photo/visual china

it is worth noting that the cooperation between guizhou and the chengdu-chongqing region has also received support at the national level. in 2021, the "outline of the plan for the construction of the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle" issued by the cpc central committee and the state council proposed to "deepen cooperation with the qianzhong urban agglomeration and drive the development of the northern guizhou region". the "opinions on supporting guizhou in breaking new ground in the great development of the west in the new era" issued by the state council in early 2022 clearly requires "actively connecting with the construction of the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle and promoting cooperation in transportation, energy, big data, culture and tourism."

zhou jiang, former vice president of the china regional science association and researcher at the institute of regional economics of the sichuan academy of social sciences, told china newsweek that zunyi faces the dilemma of industry homogeneity, short industrial chain, and insufficient technological innovation, and traditional industries are under pressure to transform and upgrade. he said that although zunyi has made some progress in transportation construction in recent years, the foundation of high-end manufacturing and technology industries is relatively weak, and the attraction of talents is limited, which seriously restricts the landing and development of emerging industries. at the same time, zunyi's industrial radiation capacity is limited, its ability to face the national market is weak, and its competitiveness in the global market is even more limited. despite policies to support cross-border e-commerce, how to expand domestic and overseas markets is still a major challenge.

zhou jiang pointed out that the chengdu-chongqing economic circle is a national strategy that can drive zunyi to integrate into the economic cycle of a larger region. at the same time, the chengdu-chongqing region has a large economic scale and complete industrial supporting facilities. zunyi can obtain greater development opportunities through the "grouping" approach. "compared with other regions in guizhou province, the industrial chain in the chengdu-chongqing region is more mature, and zunyi can take this opportunity to improve its own development quality." he said.

experts: cooperation should be staggered

in guizhou province, zunyi's total economic output is second only to the provincial capital guiyang, and the difference between the two is not too big.

as a provincial sub-center city, zunyi should not only strengthen its own strength, but also promote regional cooperation through its own development and enhance its radiation and driving capabilities. among them, strengthening regional industrial cooperation is an important way to achieve this goal, which will help enhance zunyi's comprehensive competitiveness and promote the development of the entire region.

the opinions clearly stated that we should actively connect with the content of the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle and strive to include the key tasks of zunyi city's active connection and service special planning for the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle into the new round of implementation plans for the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle. support the development of bonded remanufacturing business in the zunyi comprehensive bonded zone and accelerate the construction of the china (zunyi) cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone. strengthen resource sharing with the chongqing and chengdu cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones. promote the export of specialty products such as maotai-flavor liquor, peppers, tea, and guitars, and organize participation in overseas exhibitions to open up overseas orders.

data shows that since 2018, the proportion of new investment projects invested by chengdu and chongqing in zunyi has exceeded one-third of the total number of projects introduced by zunyi city.

however, in the view of many interviewees, zunyi still faces certain challenges in deepening cooperation with the chengdu-chongqing economic circle. an industry insider told china newsweek that there is a significant magnitude difference in comprehensive strength between zunyi and the chengdu-chongqing region, so the conditions for direct equal cooperation are not yet in place. "currently, industrial cooperation between the two places depends more on zunyi taking the initiative, through investment promotion activities in chongqing, chengdu and other places, or jointly building industrial parks," he said.

chongqing city scenery. photo: tuchong creative

zhou jiang believes that zunyi should adhere to the concept of staggered development and complementary advantages in the process of integrating into chengdu and chongqing. he said that zunyi should give full play to its own distinctive and advantageous industries, such as sauce-flavored liquor, peppers and tea, and develop staggered with chengdu and chongqing's advanced manufacturing and technology industries to form industrial complementarity and further expand its market share, while avoiding direct competition with the leading industries in the chengdu and chongqing regions.

taking the liquor industry chain as an example, zhou jiang pointed out that the chengdu-chongqing region has a huge consumer market and logistics network. zunyi can promote the national and international development of its liquor industry by deeply connecting with chengdu-chongqing's e-commerce, modern logistics and liquor marketing platforms. in addition, chengdu-chongqing's science and technology and industrial internet technology can be applied to zunyi's liquor production and management links to enhance the digitalization and intelligence level of the industry.

zhou jiang suggested that zunyi should further deepen the establishment of cross-regional cooperation mechanisms with chongqing and chengdu, jointly build industrial parks, and share scientific research results to promote coordinated development among regions. this can not only avoid excessive concentration of resources in chengdu and chongqing, but also achieve resource sharing and industrial cooperation.

lu wei, director of the regional openness office of the institute of land development and regional economy of the chinese academy of macroeconomic research, told china newsweek that zunyi and the chengdu-chongqing region have certain complementary advantages in economic structure, and in the docking process, the three key words of supporting, cooperation and undertaking should be highlighted.

he pointed out that the chengdu-chongqing economic circle is currently committed to building a high-level r&d and manufacturing base in the field of intelligent network and new energy vehicles. in this context, zunyi should rely on its established new energy vehicle supporting foundation to further strengthen its supporting cooperation with the chengdu-chongqing economic circle in this field, especially the integrated application of intelligent network technology. in view of the initial formation of the aerospace information industry cluster in chongqing liangjiang new area, zunyi, as an important national industrial backup base with aerospace equipment as the core, should actively seek docking with the chongqing aerospace information industry cluster, promote the integrated development of manufacturing and platforms, and achieve resource complementarity and optimal allocation.

at the cooperation level, lu wei suggested that zunyi and the chengdu-chongqing region establish a diversified cooperation mechanism, especially to promote the construction of the luzhou-yibin-zunyi liquor golden triangle processing base and the chishui river tourism distribution base. at the same time, based on the market demand of the chengdu-chongqing region, a characteristic agricultural product supply chain and an ecological livestock and poultry important agricultural product direct supply system should be created.

in addition, lu wei also mentioned that zunyi should actively explore the sharing and exchange of technological achievements with the chengdu-chongqing region, support the joint construction of technology achievement transformation bases, cross-regional cooperation industrial parks, foreign trade export production and processing bases and "enclave" type parks, focusing on taking over a number of project transfers around industries such as food processing, electronic components, high-end equipment manufacturing, and new materials.

"in the process of zunyi's integration into the chengdu-chongqing twin cities economic circle, it faces the challenge of how to accurately grasp the competitive and cooperative relationship with the cities in chengdu and chongqing, clarify its own positioning, promote staggered division of labor, and avoid the siphoning of resources, factors and industries by the chengdu-chongqing region. zunyi needs to pay special attention to the strategic emerging industries that the chengdu-chongqing region is planning to develop, and increase its efforts to integrate, so as to avoid falling behind in the regional new industry competition." lu wei said.

strengthening tourism cooperation

as zunyi accelerates its integration into the chengdu-chongqing economic circle, tourism cooperation has become one of the important areas for deepening exchanges.

zhang yuewei, associate professor at the school of international tourism and culture of guizhou normal university, said in an interview with china newsweek that the advantage of regional tourism compared to a single scenic spot is that it integrates various tourism resources, improves the quality of tourism services, and creates a full-region, all-time, all-scenario, all-round, and multi-level tourism experience.

as one of the few "double heritage" cities in china, zunyi has the chishui danxia world natural heritage and the hailongtun world cultural heritage. in addition, there are also rich and colorful tourism resources such as the vast tea sea in fenggang, meitan, the thousand-mile wujiang river gallery, and the "longest cave in asia" shuanghe cave.

danxia foguang rock in chishui, zunyi, guizhou. photo/visual china

from the perspective of the environment, zunyi has a pleasant climate. tongzi county, xishui county, huichuan district and other places within its jurisdiction welcome many tourists from chengdu and chongqing every summer. according to local media reports in zunyi, from january to july this year, zunyi received 4.6203 million tourists from chengdu and chongqing, a year-on-year increase of 36.29%, accounting for 23.44% of the total number of tourists from outside the province.

zhang yuewei believes that zunyi should seize the opportunity of accelerating its integration into the chengdu-chongqing economic circle, sort out and deeply explore zunyi's tourism resources, and coordinate the spatial layout of tourism development. this requires not only strengthening the construction of transportation networks and improving the interconnection between zunyi and the chengdu-chongqing region, but also improving tourism reception facilities to enhance tourists' travel experience.

she said that in the future, zunyi should start from a cross-provincial regional perspective and carry out a high-level and in-depth layout and planning of tourism. through resource integration and project connection, new advantages can be created to achieve regional mutual assistance, cooperation and coordinated development. at the same time, zunyi should focus on long-term development, fully tap its differentiated advantages in climate, culture and characteristic industries, develop in a staggered manner, and more effectively undertake the tourism radiation of the chengdu-chongqing area and even the broader market.

zhang yuewei also mentioned that zunyi should take the initiative to strengthen industrial interconnection and economic ties between regions, optimize regional resource allocation, increase investment in tourism-related infrastructure and industrial chains, expand its share in the regional economy, cultivate and strengthen market entities, and optimize the regional economy and employment structure. in particular, relying on the china (zunyi) cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, provide efficient logistics support for cultural tourism products and promote the circulation of goods and services between zunyi and the chengdu-chongqing region.

zhu xiaoling pointed out that zunyi has rich red culture, wine culture and other unique resources. the connotation of these cultures should be further explored and transformed into attractive tourism products through creative planning and packaging. for example, modern scientific and technological means such as vr and ar can be combined to enhance the immersive experience of tourists.

zhu xiaoling suggested that zunyi continue to strengthen tourism cooperation with chengdu and chongqing, jointly create cross-regional tourism routes and products, and improve the quality of tourism services by integrating tourism resources from various regions. at the same time, combined with zunyi's cultural characteristics and industrial advantages, promote the integrated development of tourism and culture, agriculture, industry and other industries, and provide tourists with more diversified tourism options.