At 19:00 on August 25, the construction site of the Qinba Logistics Park in Dazhou was bustling with activity. The construction manager repeatedly emphasized that the roadbed construction for the first to third sections of the “one vertical” in the park's “main artery”——“one vertical and three horizontal” must be completed by the end of September.
The rush to construct is due to its importance. The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Sichuan Provincial Party Committee decided to build the Chengdu-Nanchong-Dazhou High-Speed Rail, and the provincial party committee also gave Dazhou a new development positioning. How to seize the development opportunities of the high-speed rail era? In the “Great Learning, Great Discussion, Great Research” activities, Dazhou re-examined and re-understood its city conditions, systematically planned, incorporated modern logistics into the city's key industries, and accelerated the building of a new highland for opening up and development in the province.
The High-Speed Rail is Coming: Both Opportunity and Challenge
“Will the high-speed rail pass through Dazhou?” The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Sichuan Provincial Party Committee clearly decided to build the Chengdu-Nanchong-Dazhou High-Speed Rail, giving Dazhou a “reassurance”; the new positioning given by the provincial party committee also injected a “stimulant” into the city. For a time, cadres and the masses throughout the city were excited.
Beyond the excitement, Dazhou is also thinking——“Although the high-speed rail passing through is good, with the speeding trains, will various development factors such as talent, capital, and information, due to the development gradient gap between cities, produce a 'siphon effect' of one-way transfer from small and medium-sized cities to central cities? How to prevent the 'channel' from becoming a 'corridor'?” “How to leverage strengths and avoid weaknesses, seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and fully release the positive effects of the high-speed rail?”...
Led by Dazhou municipal leaders, key research was conducted on the “construction path of Sichuan's eastern gateway and northern comprehensive transportation hub,” and extensive discussions were organized among party members and cadres, experts and scholars, and the general public. Wanzhou in Chongqing, Nanning in Guangxi, Guiyang in Guizhou, Chengdu Tianfu New Area, and other places all bore the footprints of Dazhou's research teams; rail-water intermodal transport, high-speed rail construction, airport construction, etc. became key learning terms. Dazhou realized that in addition to building a major open channel to the sea, it must also use its high-speed rail hub status, rail-water intermodal advantages, and superior resources to attract more large enterprises and groups to locate in Dazhou, promoting the transformation of transportation corridors into economic corridors and location advantages into economic advantages.
These days, Yang Yu, director of the Dazhou Logistics Office, is busy preparing for a business trip to Guangzhou next week. “We will go to major authoritative logistics institutions across the country to seek talent and wisdom, and re-plan for building a comprehensive logistics hub in the Qinba region.”
Rising with the Trend, Making the Most of High-Speed Rail Opening-Up
Through the “Great Learning, Great Discussion, Great Research” activities, Dazhou summarized problems such as an suboptimal industrial system, inactive market mechanisms, insufficient coordinated development, and shallow openness. In response to these problems, the Dazhou Municipal Party Committee systematically planned policies, measures, development paths, and working mechanisms for achieving high-quality development in Dazhou during the second phase of the activities.
On August 21, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Fourth Dazhou Municipal Party Committee was held, proposing a package plan for Dazhou to embrace the high-speed rail era and make the most of opening up. On the one hand, the positioning for open development is more precise. Dazhou adjusted its two positionings from the original “building a core growth pole of the Northeast Sichuan Economic Zone and a regional central city at the junction of Sichuan, Chongqing, and Shaanxi” to “building Sichuan's eastern gateway and northern comprehensive transportation hub and a regional central city at the junction of Sichuan, Chongqing, and Shaanxi”; and adjusted “the construction of an important comprehensive transportation hub in western China” among the city's “five key projects” to “the construction of Sichuan's eastern gateway and northern comprehensive transportation hub.”
On the other hand, to stand at the “outlet,” it is also necessary to strengthen itself. Dazhou proposed to adjust the “6+2 key industries” to “6+3 key industries,” adding modern logistics to the city's industrial development map. At the same time, major deployments were made to build a new pattern of coordinated regional development featuring “central leadership, three-zone coordination, five-city advancement, and rural revitalization,” and to form a new trend of “multi-dimensional expansion and comprehensive opening up,” focusing on retaining local people, attracting back Dazhou natives, and drawing in outsiders.