Make me your Homepage
    left corner left corner
    China Daily Website

    China's 'paradise' for consumers is reborn in the west

    Updated: 2013-03-14 13:00
    (China Daily)
    China's 'paradise' for consumers is reborn in the west
    The third phase of the Tianfu Software Park

    Can China continue to be a global powerhouse of economic growth?

    To answer the question, one must examine the country and its cities inside and out.

    A good starting point is Chengdu, the host city for the Fortune Global Forum 2013. Located in the western part of the country, Chengdu used to be a traditional business hub rooted in vast paddy fields nourished by water from Dujiangyan, one of the world's oldest and largest known irrigation systems.

    The ingenious waterworks were built around 256BC, 35 years before China's first emperor unified the country. It was a symbol of China's advancement, signifying the early ripening of agricultural civilization.

    The abundance of agricultural products available in Chengdu's surrounding Sichuan province earned it the name "Tianfu Zhiguo", meaning "consumers' paradise".

    Though the heyday of local agriculture may have passed and the city is more than 1,000 kilometers from a seaport in any direction, Chengdu is not on the sidelines in the era of globalization.

    Just as Chengdu's 2,500 year-old water works are still in use today, the city, with a population of more than 10 million, has become an increasingly important modern business hub in China's interior.

    Last year, the city registered more than 813.89 billion yuan ($130.7 billion) in GDP, almost equivalent to half of the city of Beijing, or 40 percent of Shanghai.

    Much change has come to Sichuan province. A driver of growth in China's reform era, its economy grew from 18 billion yuan in 1978 to more than 100 billion yuan in 1991, 500 billion yuan in 2003, and 1 trillion yuan in 2007.

    China's 'paradise' for consumers is reborn in the west

    ED ZHANG

    Despite a devastating earthquake in 2008, the province's GDP exceeded 2 trillion yuan in 2011 and expanded further to 2.38 trillion yuan in 2012. It has a plan to raise its GDP to 3 trillion yuan in 2015. A record of development like this is a marvel even at a time when the whole country has been leading the world in economic growth.

    Chengdu generates almost 35 percent of Sichuan's economy.But now that the urbanization ratio hovers around only some 40 percent in Chengdu's surrounding areas, the city can still contribute a lot to the country's future changes by absorbing more people into its urban environment and providing services to nearby areas.

    Progress has been remarkable so far.

    As an example of the city's modernization and open economy, city officials like to cite the increasing presence of international corporations in the city, especially inside the newly developed Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone.

    Distance can no longer isolate the city from the rest of the world. It now has direct flights to such international destinations as Amsterdam, Bangalore and Vancouver as well as regular cargo trains to Europe.

    These connections with the world are being operated by a new generation of English-speaking managers. There were 310,000 new workers with college credential in Sichuan in 2012.

    While across the country, there will be almost 7 million in 2013, which is more than enough to fill in the vacancies in whatever new industries emerge.

    Domestically, Chengdu is a logistics center for China's southwestern provinces.

    It also houses a huge variety of agricultural and mining products. Building industrial strength is one of the easiest among all of Chengdu's developmental tasks.

    Continuing to build houses and all public infrastructures is also relatively easy. There are standard ways to raise capital and implement plans.

    But neither industry nor public infrastructure can be put to a good use unless the local people are willing to spend more money on new products and services.

    The entire nation faces the same challenge. Domestic consumption is increasingly becoming the primary driver of sustained growth. Growth in global demand for Chinese products has been sluggish since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, and recovery has been slow.

    Meanwhile, China's wages have been on the rise together with yuan's exchange rate against other major currencies in the world.

    Over the past couple of years, the government has designed many incentives for consumers to spend more, including short-term subsidies and more-extensive social security networks.

    But there is one thing that officials cannot design - a cultural mix that rewards private entrepreneurship and equally creative consumer pursuits. This is where Chengdu can set an example for the whole China.

    The city and Sichuan province are known in China to have a tradition that stresses a balance between work and leisure.

    Chengdu's people strive for productivity while retaining a love for nature, and on a more philosophical level, they seek to find a middle ground between goal-oriented Confucianism and the spirituality of Buddhism and Taoism.

    This tradition is still vividly alive in Chengdu - just like its folksy teahouses that coexist with high-tech factories and glass office towers.

    With proper planning and sustainable development, Chengdu is on the right track to once again becoming a "consumers' paradise" as it was in the old days.

    Contact the writer at edzhang@chinadaily.com.cn

     

     

     
    8.03K
     
    ...
    无码中文字幕av免费放dvd| 久久人妻无码中文字幕| 亚洲级αV无码毛片久久精品| 中文无码精品一区二区三区| 亚洲国产精品无码久久| 免费无码国产在线观国内自拍中文字幕| 熟妇人妻中文av无码| 手机永久无码国产AV毛片 | 久久久久亚洲AV片无码下载蜜桃| 国产精品亚洲w码日韩中文| 西西4444www大胆无码| 精品日韩亚洲AV无码| 亚洲精品无码精品mV在线观看| 亚洲久本草在线中文字幕| 久久人妻少妇嫩草AV无码蜜桃| 亚洲av无码一区二区乱子伦as| 最近免费中文字幕mv在线电影| 精品久久久久久无码中文野结衣| 国产啪亚洲国产精品无码| 亚洲一区精品中文字幕| 天堂网www中文在线| 中文字幕无码av激情不卡久久| 91精品无码久久久久久五月天 | 天堂а√在线中文在线最新版| 久久亚洲AV无码西西人体| 国产精品一区二区久久精品无码| 久久国产精品无码HDAV | 无码免费又爽又高潮喷水的视频| 日韩乱码人妻无码中文字幕久久| 亚洲综合无码AV一区二区| 免费看又黄又无码的网站| 最新高清无码专区| 亚洲日韩乱码中文无码蜜桃臀网站 | 亚洲中文字幕久久精品无码喷水| 无码夫の前で人妻を侵犯 | 无码人妻精品一区二区三区夜夜嗨| 精品多人p群无码| 亚洲日韩精品一区二区三区无码 | 日韩AV高清无码| 国产丰满乱子伦无码专区| 最新中文字幕av无码专区|