Counties in East China bolster their economies

China's eastern regions, especially Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces, are bolstering their economic development, CCID Consulting said in its latest research report on competitiveness on Tuesday.

The report said that counties' GDP in China increased from 33.1 trillion yuan ($4.6 trillion) in 2016 to 43.2 trillion yuan in 2021.

It also said that 54 of the top 100 counties' GDP exceeds 100 billion, with Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces maintaining their leading positions.

Specifically, the coastal areas of East China have the largest number of counties making the list, including 23 counties or county-level cities of the top 100 in Jiangsu province, the most in the country, followed by 16 counties in Zhejiang and 13 counties in Shandong.

According to the report, Cixi county in Zhejiang has remained in first place among the 16 counties on the list across the province and ranks seventh nationwide.

Cixi, with a GDP of about 125 billion yuan in the first half of 2023, is known for its rapid development in secondary industries, which reached an added value of 73 billion in the period.

This county-level city has a strong economy with dozens of industrial clusters. For example, industrial enterprises above a designated size in the county last year produced a total of 324,700 tons of plastic products, 3.1 billion sets of roller bearings, 31.4 million metal seals, 43,600 tons of metal fasteners and 10.447 million sets of household electric fan.

Promoting the high-quality development of county-level economies plays an important role in promoting the high-quality development of the country's economy, Qiao Biao, vice-president of CCID, said on Tuesday.

Besides maintaining the development of basic industries such as home appliances and automobiles and their components, Cixi has grasped the opportunities to promote high-quality development by expanding new emerging industries, including health, intelligent equipment and new materials.

To boost county-level economies, Zhejiang has devised development strategies based on regional resource advantages of different counties, and forged an industry chain that suits the development of the region.

For example, Yiwu, ranking 11th on the list, is renowned as the world's largest small-commodities market, and Zhuji, following Yiwu on the list, is the nation's largest freshwater pearl processing and trading center.

Other cities in Zhejiang, including Yuyao, Yueqing, Haining and Wenling are listed among the top 20 on the list.

However, the report also pointed out the existing problems of county economic development in China, including the unbalanced development of the regions and slow transition to new from old economic engines.

For example, the GDP of Kunshan, Jiangsu province, the highest, is nearly five times that of Shouguang, Shandong province, of all 54 counties whose GDP hit over 100 billion.

Lu Jun, deputy dean of the School of Government and Management at Peking University, said the key to the development of the county economy is to bridge the gap of technology and numbers between urban and rural areas.

Fang Xiaoying in Hangzhou contributed to this story.