On January 21, the second session of the 16th Beijing Municipal People's Congress opened. Beijing Mayor Yin Yong introduced that in 2023 the city's regional gross domestic product grew by 5.2%, to about 4.4 trillion yuan. According to statistics compiled by a Securities Daily reporter, as of now 12 provinces—including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, Shandong, Hunan, Hainan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Gansu and Inner Mongolia—have successively released their 2023 economic data.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on January 17 show that, on a preliminary accounting basis, China's gross domestic product (GDP) for the full year 2023 was 126,058.2 billion yuan, an increase of 5.2% over the previous year at constant prices.

Among the 12 provinces above, 9 posted GDP growth rates that outpaced the national figure. Liu Xiangdong, deputy director of the Economic Research Department of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told a Securities Daily reporter that amid sustained economic recovery and improvement, the economic growth of multiple provinces exceeded the national rate and their economic aggregates reached new levels, reflecting efforts by localities to take multiple measures to stimulate market vitality and strive to restore regional economies.

  Many provinces set new GDP records last year

In terms of aggregate size, among the 12 provinces that have published full-year 2023 economic data, several saw their GDP reach new levels. Shandong, Sichuan and Hunan each surpassed 9 trillion yuan, 6 trillion yuan and 5 trillion yuan in annual GDP for the first time, while Chongqing and Liaoning joined the "3 trillion yuan club."

"These regions have relatively complete industrial layouts, sound economic development momentum and favorable market prospects and development potential. In the new round of economic development, these regions focus on innovation-driven growth, transformation and upgrading, and talent introduction, accelerating the push for high-quality development," Tian Lihui, dean of the Institute of Finance and Development at Nankai University, told a Securities Daily reporter.

As a major economic province in the north, Shandong saw marked improvement in its main economic indicators in 2023. According to reports, Shandong's gross product for the full year 2023 was 9,206.9 billion yuan, up 6.0% over the previous year at constant prices, which not only represents significant growth in its economic aggregate but also reflects improvement in its economic quality and efficiency.

Fu Xiangguo, deputy director and spokesperson of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Statistics, said at a Shandong provincial government press conference held on January 19: "Shandong's supply and demand sides recovered in tandem, and the government rolled out a package of pragmatic and effective policies and measures in a timely manner, driving a simultaneous rebound in production supply and market demand; quality and efficiency improved at a faster pace, as the conversion of old and new growth drivers was advanced in depth, the industrial structure was continuously optimized, growth momentum was accumulated and development advantages were strengthened; market vitality steadily increased, as efforts were made to remove constraints on the development of the private economy and private investment, market expectations improved steadily and the vitality of business entities continued to strengthen."

In terms of GDP growth, among the 12 provinces above, Beijing was on par with the national level, Hunan and Tianjin were below the national level, and the remaining 9 provinces outpaced the national level. Among them, Hainan's GDP grew 9.2% year on year, temporarily leading in terms of growth rate. Inner Mongolia's GDP grew 7.3% year on year, its highest growth rate since 2016.

"In the regional economic landscape, provinces such as Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Jilin and Chongqing deserve attention," Liu Xiangdong analyzed. In terms of the drivers of economic growth, the continued recovery of the service sector and industry was the main force behind rapid economic growth. For example, although Hainan's economic aggregate is small, its secondary and tertiary industries grew at double-digit rates of 10.6% and 10.3% respectively; Jilin's value added of the tertiary industry grew 6.9%, and its value added of the secondary industry also grew 5.9%. This shows that contact-intensive and gathering-type service industries recovered relatively quickly, especially cultural tourism, catering and accommodation and other service industries, which strongly supported the stabilization and improvement of economic growth.

  Many localities this year

will do a good job in scientific and technological innovation

Recently, local "two sessions" have been held successively. For this year's GDP targets, Beijing set around 5% and Chongqing around 6%.

For 2024, many localities have made upholding scientific and technological innovation and taking multiple measures to stabilize investment and boost consumption important priorities. For example, Chongqing Mayor Hu Henghua said in his government work report that the city will persist in promoting industrial innovation through scientific and technological innovation and accelerate the building of a modern industrial system. It will give greater prominence to the high-quality development of manufacturing, persistently support leading enterprises to drive the ecosystem, promote industrial clustering, technological innovation and integrated development, and vigorously cultivate new quality productive forces. It will take multiple measures to stabilize investment and boost consumption, fully unleash demand potential and economic vitality, stimulate consumption with potential, expand investment with returns, and form a virtuous cycle in which consumption and investment reinforce each other.

Beijing Mayor Yin Yong, in his government work report, said Beijing's key priorities include: concentrating efforts on building an international center for scientific and technological innovation and further strengthening new growth drivers and new advantages; making the digital economy stronger, better and larger to better empower the capital's high-quality development; and coordinating the expansion of domestic demand with the deepening of supply-side structural reform to consolidate and strengthen the momentum of economic recovery and improvement.

In Tian Lihui's view, China's coordinated regional development is expected to be further strengthened in 2024, emerging industries will rise further, central cities and city clusters will grow further, and rural revitalization and integrated urban-rural development will be intensified. Regional economic development will pay more attention to coordinated development, innovation-driven growth, transformation and upgrading, ecological civilization construction and green development.

Liu Xiangdong believes that in 2024 regional economic development will still show the characteristics of competitive development and continued differentiation, and the economic structure will continue to be optimized and adjusted. In particular, as consumption becomes the main driver of the economy, localities will need to work hard to increase residents' incomes through multiple channels.

"Specifically, this includes continuing to optimize the business environment, deepening institutional and mechanism reform, making good use of open cooperation platforms, and further stimulating market vitality and social creativity. To promote the rational layout and high-quality development of the regional economy, it is necessary not only to optimize the layout of major productive forces on the existing basis and further improve infrastructure, raise social security levels and other foundational work, but also to focus on building a modern industrial system through scientific and technological innovation and cultivating new drivers of economic growth," Liu Xiangdong said.

Tian Lihui said that to further develop the regional economy, it is necessary to increase investment and financial support and promote infrastructure construction and improvements in social welfare; strengthen talent cultivation and scientific and technological innovation and enhance economic innovation capacity and competitiveness; optimize the business environment and market mechanisms and attract more investment and enterprises; strengthen regional cooperation and coordinated development, break down administrative barriers and regional blockades, and promote resource sharing and complementary advantages; and advance environmental protection and sustainable development and ensure that the concept of green development takes root.