At the First Session of the 13th Guangdong Provincial People's Congress, which opened on January 25, the provincial government work report made detailed arrangements for the province's key work in 2018, and many contents are closely related to Jiangmen. Among them, topics such as the "Pearl River West Strategy", the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway, which were highlighted in the report, triggered heated discussions among the Jiangmen delegation.
　　"How Jiangmen will develop next mainly focuses on two points: first, adhere to transportation first, and truly highlight Jiangmen's advantages; second, adhere to industry-based city development and vigorously develop the real economy." Lin Yingwu, provincial people's congress representative and secretary of the Jiangmen Municipal Party Committee, pointed out during the group deliberation of the provincial government work report that Jiangmen must adhere to transportation first and industry-based city development, align with advanced cities such as Shenzhen and Hangzhou in work standards, work ideas, and work goals, strive to "overtake on the curve", and achieve high-quality development.
　　Highlight 1
　　Promote the landing of a batch of industrial projects exceeding 1 billion yuan this year
　　The provincial government work report clearly proposes that the province will implement the action plan for focused tackling of the advanced equipment manufacturing industrial belt on the west bank of the Pearl River, and strive to introduce a batch of leading backbone projects in advanced equipment manufacturing. This also means that, as Guangdong accelerates the pace of building a strong manufacturing province, Jiangmen, as the birthplace and main battlefield of the "Pearl River West Strategy", is expected to usher in more development opportunities for the city's advanced equipment manufacturing industry.
　　In the past few years, Jiangmen's advanced equipment industry has maintained rapid development, providing strong support for the province's in-depth implementation of the "Pearl River West Strategy". According to statistics, in 2017, Jiangmen arranged a total of 31.2 million yuan in special funds to support the development of advanced equipment manufacturing, and the city introduced 109 industrial projects each exceeding 100 million yuan, with an investment amount of 83.5 billion yuan.
　　With the landing of multiple major projects, Jiangmen's advanced equipment manufacturing is becoming the main driving force for the city's industrial development. Data provided by the Jiangmen Municipal Development and Reform Bureau show that in 2017, the city's equipment manufacturing investment accounted for more than 40% (40.1%) of the city's industrial investment for the first time, an increase of 1.7 percentage points over the previous year.
　　This data not only releases a strong signal that new drivers of Jiangmen's economic growth are being accelerated, but also shows that Jiangmen's development idea of "industry-based city" in the past two years has begun to show results. Among them, the Guangdong Rail Transit Industrial Park is undoubtedly a representative development case: the park achieved an output value of 2.428 billion yuan last year, an increase of 96%, almost doubling the output value of 2016. And the core enterprise of the park—CRRC Guangdong Rail Transit Vehicle Co., Ltd.—also set its fastest growth rate since settling in Jiangmen last year.
　　However, despite the rapid growth, many industrial projects in Jiangmen still have problems such as small production scale and insufficient market orders, which have also become difficulties that Jiangmen must face in building an advanced equipment manufacturing industrial belt. Lin Yingwu pointed out sharply during the group deliberation, "At present, Jiangmen's economic scale is not large and local financial resources are insufficient. In the future, we must still adhere to industry-based city development, and develop the economy wholeheartedly and by every possible means."
　　"It is suggested that our province can focus on placing some leading backbone projects in Jiangmen." Chen Zhongjian, provincial people's congress representative and chairman of Jiangmen Construction Group Co., Ltd., believes that Jiangmen has a good foundation for manufacturing development and is the city with the most development potential on the west bank of the Pearl River. "The nine cities in the Pearl River Delta have different positioning, and developing advanced equipment manufacturing conforms to Jiangmen's reality."
　　Liu Yi, provincial people's congress representative and mayor of Jiangmen, revealed at the media open day of the Jiangmen delegation at the provincial people's congress that Jiangmen will continue to promote the construction of the advanced equipment manufacturing industrial belt on the west bank of the Pearl River. "This year is Jiangmen's 'year of breakthrough in investment promotion'. We will accelerate the settlement and construction of new projects, focusing on promoting the landing of a batch of major high-quality industrial projects with investments exceeding 1 billion yuan."
　　In order to attract more advanced equipment manufacturing projects to land, the reporter learned that this year Jiangmen will accelerate the construction of five major ten-thousand-mu parks, including the Guangdong-Macao (Jiangmen) Industrial Cooperation Demonstration Zone, the Pearl River West New Materials Cluster Zone, and the Shenzhen-Jiangmen Industrial Park, and plans to add 5,000 mu of "three connections and one leveling" land to undertake industrial investment spillover from the core area of the Pearl River Delta.
　　Highlight 2
　　Ensure the Jiangmen-Maoming section of the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway opens to traffic in the first half of this year
　　The provincial government work report clearly proposes to optimize the province's high-speed rail network layout and accelerate the construction of railways such as Guangzhou-Shanwei, Shenzhen-Maoming, Ganzhou-Shenzhen, and Hefei-Zhanjiang. At present, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is about to open to traffic, the Second Humen Bridge is about to be completed and opened to traffic, and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link and the Pearl River Delta trunk line airport are also being accelerated... The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is accelerating the laying of a rail transit network and building a modern infrastructure system. Jiangmen's location advantage as a hub gateway city on the west wing of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will become more prominent.
　　"Jiangmen will further actively connect, plan ahead, and accelerate the formation of a major transportation pattern of interconnection and all-round connection with the city cluster of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area." Liu Yi said that the city will open up the high-speed and expressway network connecting the east and west, focusing on building the "three corridors": the northern line connecting the Humen Bridge and the Second Humen Bridge, the central line connecting the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, and the southern line connecting the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
　　The reporter learned from the Jiangmen Municipal Development and Reform Bureau that the track laying work for the Jiangmen-Maoming section of the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway has recently been completed, and line debugging will be carried out next to ensure that the entire line opens to traffic in the first half of this year. In addition, the Jiangmen Station project of the Pearl River West Comprehensive Transportation Hub is being accelerated, and the preliminary design of the station building and related projects has been approved by China Railway Corporation, and it is expected that the main structure of the station building will be completed by the end of this year.
　　After the Jiangmen-Maoming section of the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway takes the lead in achieving full-line opening, it will end the history of six counties and urban districts along the railway—Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, Yangjiang, Yangdong, and Yangxi—having no access to rapid railways. At the same time, after Jiangmen Station is put into use, it will fill the gap of no large-scale rail transit hub on the west bank of the Pearl River, becoming the province's fourth regional comprehensive transportation hub after Guangzhou South Station, Shenzhen North Station, and Foshan West Station.
　　Therefore, the Jiangmen-Maoming section of the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway and Jiangmen Station will become the key to Jiangmen's building of a hub gateway city on the west wing of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Liu Yi said that Jiangmen is the only place the Pearl River Delta must pass to enter western Guangdong, and will take this opportunity to actively shoulder the important task of connecting the east and west and radiating to western Guangdong and even the great southwest, and accelerate the construction of a rail transit network centered on the Pearl River West Comprehensive Hub Jiangmen Station. "Next, we will promote the acceleration of preliminary work for projects such as the Jiangmen-Shenzhen section of the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway, the Jiangmen-Zhaoqing High-speed Railway, and the Guangzhou-Foshan-Jiangmen-Zhuhai Intercity Rail, and promote Jiangmen's accelerated entry into a new era of rail transit."
　　"In the provincial government work report, the term Shenzhen-Maoming Railway was mentioned twice. I hope the provincial government and China Railway Corporation attach great importance to this issue and solve the connectivity problem on both sides of the Pearl River as soon as possible." Zhang Jie, provincial people's congress representative and vice president of the Jiangmen Lawyers Association, believes that the province should accelerate the construction of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen section of the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway. This will not only alleviate traffic congestion on the east and west banks of the Pearl River, but also promote interconnection and interoperability between the two banks in terms of talent, industry, and life.
　　Highlight 3
　　Give play to the advantages of the hometown of overseas Chinese and build a new platform for Bay Area cooperation
　　The provincial government work report proposes to accelerate the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, promote the convenient and orderly flow of people, logistics, capital, and information, fully give play to the positive role of Pearl River Delta cities in the construction of the Bay Area, and promote complementary advantages and coordinated development. As major projects such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway, and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link successively start construction, how should Jiangmen seize the opportunities next?
　　"After the Huangmaohai Bridge is built, the entire Daguanghai Bay Economic Zone will come alive." Lin Yingwu said that Jiangmen should aim to build a hub gateway city on the west wing of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, truly give play to Jiangmen's role as a comprehensive transportation hub in western Pearl River, and highlight Jiangmen's advantages in land and other factors.
　　In Liu Yi's view, Jiangmen has three main advantages in participating in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: obvious location advantages, broad development hinterland, and a good business and entrepreneurial innovation environment. Among them, the broad development hinterland is one of the biggest advantages for Jiangmen to participate in the construction of the Bay Area. "Jiangmen is the only prefecture-level city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with large-scale contiguous developable land, with broad development space, deep hinterland, and obvious land carrying capacity advantages."
　　As for how to actively integrate into the construction of the Bay Area, Liu Yi said that Jiangmen will seize the opportunity of the country's promotion of the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, comprehensively strengthen docking and cooperation with cities in the Bay Area in fields such as transportation, industry, science and technology, finance, and talent, and build a hub gateway city on the west wing of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and a major innovation and development platform for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao cooperation.
　　The reporter noted that the Jiangmen Municipal People's Congress and CPPCC have clearly proposed that this year they will deepen the strategic research on integrating the Daguanghai Bay into the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and promote a new pattern of integrated development in the east and coordinated development in the west, focus on solving the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development, build the four new cities of Binjiang New Area, Science and Innovation New City, Hub New City, and Yinhuwan Coastal New City to a high standard, and scientifically position Jiangmen for integration into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
　　The provincial government work report also proposes that in the process of building the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the province should give play to the advantages of foreign affairs, overseas Chinese affairs, and other resources, deepen international friendship city exchanges and cooperation, and improve the level of attracting investment, intelligence, and technology. As the "Capital of Overseas Chinese in China", how should Jiangmen give play to its unique advantages?
　　In this regard, Liu Yi said that Jiangmen will fully give play to the advantages of rich resources of Hong Kong and Macao compatriots and overseas Chinese, plan and sort out a batch of important matters and key projects every year, and continuously deepen and expand cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao. "At the same time, the construction of innovation and entrepreneurship carriers such as the China (Jiangmen) 'Qiaomengyuan' Overseas Chinese Innovation Industry Cluster Zone and the Overseas Chinese Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Park is being accelerated, which will provide more space and paths for deepening cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in fields such as industry and science and technology."
　　The reporter learned that Jiangmen will build a new platform for Bay Area cooperation, fully give play to the city's unique advantage of rich resources of Hong Kong and Macao compatriots and overseas Chinese, focus on all-round docking with the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in terms of development platforms, transportation facilities, urban construction, science and technology finance, cultural tourism, overseas Chinese capital and wisdom, deepen Jiangmen-Macao financial cooperation, and promote the in-depth development of Jiangmen-Shenzhen cooperation.