The first meeting of the new year "starts ahead", and this "trillion-yuan city" is coming.

A new member is about to join the "GDP Trillion Club."

On January 3rd, before the New Year's Day holiday ended, Wenzhou took the lead in convening the Municipal Party Committee's Economic Work Conference and the Promotion Conference for Building an Innovative Wenzhou. The conference emphasized that "this year is the starting year of the 15th Five - Year Plan... and also the starting year for Wenzhou to re - embark on its journey after entering the 'Trillion - GDP City' club."

As the saying goes, "Large economic cities should shoulder greater responsibilities." For Wenzhou, reaching the new milestone of a trillion - yuan GDP, it will become the third city in Zhejiang with a trillion - yuan GDP after Hangzhou and Ningbo. For Zhejiang, it will catch up with Shandong (Qingdao, Jinan, and Yantai), becoming the fourth province with at least three trillion - GDP cities.

As it is both the "starting year" of the new plan and the "take - off year," holding the "First Meeting of the New Year" at this time has obvious guiding significance for Wenzhou's annual work. In terms of content, the keyword for Wenzhou this year is still "innovation." This is also the fifth consecutive year that the city has chosen innovation as the theme of the "First Meeting of the New Year."

As Zhang Zhenfeng, a member of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee and the Secretary of the Wenzhou Municipal Party Committee, said, "Facing new missions, only innovation can turn 'positioning' into 'status'; facing new stages, only innovation can enable 'catch - up' in the process of 'advancement'; facing new trends, only innovation can turn 'variables' into 'increments'."

Currently, the "First Meetings of the New Year" are being held in various places, and more than one city has shouted the slogan of "innovation." What makes Wenzhou different? Standing at the new starting point of "trillion - yuan GDP," how should Wenzhou seize the opportunity in the next five years through innovation and shoulder the mission of being the "third growth pole of Zhejiang"?

Starting the "Trillion - Yuan" Race

Wenzhou's dream of reaching a trillion - yuan GDP has a long history, and the deadline has always been set for 2025.

As early as 2019, Wenzhou proposed that by 2025, "the city's regional GDP will exceed one trillion yuan, and the permanent population will reach 10 million." Two years later, the overall development goals of Wenzhou's 14th Five - Year Plan also included "a trillion - level regional GDP" and "a permanent population of tens of millions."

In 2024, Wenzhou's GDP reached 971.9 billion yuan. The economic data for the first three quarters of 2025 showed that Wenzhou achieved a GDP of 741.44 billion yuan, an increase of 68.24 billion yuan compared with the same period of the previous year, a year - on - year increase of 6.1%. Judging from the direction of the "First Meeting of the New Year," Wenzhou's reaching the trillion - yuan GDP mark is just waiting for the official announcement.

As a major manufacturing city, Wenzhou's innovation - driven development is mainly reflected in industry, especially manufacturing.

Looking back to the 1980s and 1990s, the five traditional industries of electricity, footwear, clothing, auto parts, and pumps and valves were the greatest characteristics of Wenzhou's economic development. However, with the continuous iteration of production methods and consumer demand, the development speed of traditional industries has slowed down, and they have even been labeled as low - end industries.

"The current emphasis on innovation is an urgent need for Wenzhou to cope with the weakening of traditional advantages and achieve its own transformation and upgrading," Zeng Gang, the dean of the Urban Development Research Institute of East China Normal University, told Urban Evolution. The disappearance of traditional cost advantages has made the "sweat economy" that relies on low - cost and labor - intensive production unsustainable. Transformation to innovation - driven development is an inevitable choice for Wenzhou.

On the one hand, after long - term accumulation, local private enterprises have sufficient capital and a strong willingness to upgrade their industries. They urgently need to seize higher profit margins and market positions through technological innovation. On the other hand, in the general trend of China's export structure shifting towards technology - intensive products such as mechanical and electrical products, innovation is the fundamental for Wenzhou to maintain its regional industrial competitiveness.

Wenzhou's sense of urgency does not only come from itself. The local government has also made a horizontal comparison with Hangzhou and Ningbo, the two major growth poles in the province, and frankly stated that "Hangzhou is committed to building the 'Number One City of the National Digital Economy,' and Ningbo is vigorously developing intelligent manufacturing. Wenzhou also needs to focus on scientific and technological innovation to build a modern industrial cluster."

To promote transformation through innovation, on January 6, 2022, Wenzhou held the Municipal Party Committee's Talent and Scientific and Technological Innovation Work Conference. The main person in charge of the Wenzhou Municipal Party Committee said that it is necessary to "lead the improvement of industrial competitiveness and urban competitiveness through the improvement of talent competitiveness, and transform the 'key variable' of scientific and technological innovation into the 'greatest increment'."

What has Wenzhou gained after starting each of the past five years with innovation?

A set of data can serve as evidence: During the 14th Five - Year Plan period, the average annual growth rate of the added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size in Wenzhou is expected to be 8.9%, and the average annual growth rate of manufacturing investment is expected to be 13.9%. The growth rates of these two indicators ranked first in the whole province of Zhejiang in 2024. From January to October 2025, the added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size in Wenzhou increased by 10.1% year - on - year, and manufacturing investment increased by 25.6% year - on - year, continuing to lead the whole province of Zhejiang.

Innovative Increment

This year is the starting year of the 15th Five - Year Plan and also the starting year for Wenzhou to re - embark on its journey after entering the "Trillion - GDP City" club.

When the keyword "innovation" has appeared in the "First Meeting of the New Year" for five consecutive years, what is different about the direction this year? One major highlight is that among the eight aspects where "greater breakthroughs" are clearly to be achieved in this meeting, the innovative development of artificial intelligence is placed at the top.

In fact, as early as the end of July last year, Wenzhou proposed to build an "Innovative Wenzhou" and accelerate the construction of a leading city in the innovative development of artificial intelligence. More than a month later, the city held the City - wide Conference on the Innovative Development of Artificial Intelligence and officially established the first artificial intelligence bureau in a prefecture - level city in Zhejiang, which is responsible for coordinating the development of artificial intelligence in the whole city.

Then in September last year, the centralized signing event of major projects in the third quarter of 2025 in Wenzhou was held. A total of 152 major industrial projects were signed centrally, with a total agreed investment of 113 billion yuan. Among them, manufacturing projects accounted for 61.8% of the signed projects. In particular, focusing on the artificial intelligence track, 25 major AI industrial projects were launched.

Ultimately, industrial development depends on enterprises.

At this year's "First Meeting of the New Year," Guansheng Co., Ltd., a traditional auto parts manufacturing enterprise, made a special appearance. Guansheng Co., Ltd. has been deeply involved in the auto parts field for 40 years and has had the largest aftermarket for constant - velocity universal joints in the world for many consecutive years. This time, it came with the R & D results of core joint components for humanoid robots.

In Zeng Gang's view, the innovation in the AI industry is mainly promoted by flexible private enterprises. They are sensitive to market demand, make practical investments, and pursue practical results and returns. And the private economy and a large number of private enterprises are precisely the greatest reliance for Wenzhou's development. At the same time, relying on the powerful Wenzhou merchant network and foreign cooperation channels, Wenzhou's technologies, products, and services can quickly connect with domestic and international markets, magnifying the innovation benefits.

However, Wenzhou is not without its weaknesses. The local government has pointed out that in terms of core indicators, "the R & D expenditure of the whole society in Wenzhou is still lower than the provincial average, and there is still a long way to go to reach the target of 3.4% by 2027." This is the main weakness in Wenzhou's science and technology innovation drive and a hurdle that needs to be overcome.

Zeng Gang said that Wenzhou's current strategy is different from the disruptive innovation models such as the "Six Dragons of Hangzhou." It starts from what it is good at and applies AI technology to the upgrading and transformation of existing traditional industries, covering multiple aspects such as products, processes, and procedures, forming an integration model of "AI +" or "+AI." Wenzhou's wide range of industries, from materials and electronics to marine economy, also provides diverse application scenarios and room for trial - and - error for technological innovation.

To support enterprise development, in addition to policies, Wenzhou has already taken action. In December last year, the Emerging Industries Bureau of Wenzhou Bay New Area was officially established. Its main responsibility is to formulate medium - and long - term plans for investment promotion and investment attraction in emerging industries, set overall goals and annual work plans, and organize their implementation.

As the first emerging industries bureau established in Zhejiang Province, it will focus on emerging industries such as new materials, new energy, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and the digital economy, further sort out, optimize, and integrate existing industrial policies, talent policies, and innovation policies, break down departmental barriers, and form a policy synergy to support the development of emerging industries.

One of the "Three Cores"

"Today's Wenzhou is not only pursuing its own development," an article in Wenzhou Daily on January 4th said. At the start of the 15th Five - Year Plan, Wenzhou must find its position in regional coordination and national strategies to promote the overall improvement of urban energy level and core competitiveness.

Behind this is Wenzhou's increasingly clear positioning: The State Council has approved Wenzhou as an important regional central city in the southeast coast. The Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee has entrusted Wenzhou with the mission of enhancing the energy level and coordinated development level of the Wenzhou Metropolitan Area and strengthening the function of being the "third growth pole of the province."

A high - speed train on the Hangzhou - Wenzhou High - speed Railway is running on the line in Yiwu City. Photo source: Xinhua News Agency

"The key for Wenzhou to support the 'third growth pole of Zhejiang' lies in leveraging its strengths and avoiding its weaknesses and finding a differentiated and characteristic development path," Zeng Gang believes. Facing the gap in economic aggregate with Hangzhou and Ningbo, Wenzhou has not blindly pursued scale but has formed a regional collaborative synergy in a complementary manner - ensuring that economic growth is truly translated into corporate profits and government fiscal revenues and achieving high - quality and efficient development.

A set of data can support the effectiveness of this path: In the first three quarters of last year, among the 45 sub - indicators involved in the achievements of the 2025 key tasks in Zhejiang, 42 of Wenzhou's indicators ranked among the top three in the province, and 23 of them ranked first in the province, setting an exemplary effect in many key areas of "economic competition."

Looking at the long - term, during the 14th Five - Year Plan period, the proportion of high - tech industries increased from 60.9% to 73%, and the proportion of strategic emerging industries increased from 26.4% to 31.2%. The per - capita GDP increased from 74,684 yuan in 2020 to 99,106 yuan in 2024 and is expected to exceed 100,000 yuan in 2025, approaching the level of high - income countries (regions).

In Zeng Gang's view, innovation is the core engine for Wenzhou to cross the trillion - yuan threshold and bid farewell to the traditional growth model. Its characteristics lie in "private - sector - led, wide - ranging application, and practical effectiveness." In the future, Wenzhou is expected to continue to rely on its flexible private - sector mechanism and extensive industrial ecosystem to form a unique competitiveness in the "main battlefield" of scientific and technological innovation leading industrial upgrading.

According to the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Reform Pilot of the Market - Oriented Allocation of Factors in Some Regions across the Country" officially approved by the State Council, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Wenzhou are among the 10 selected city clusters, metropolitan areas, and central cities with strong regional representativeness and strategic traction. Relying on the vitality of the private economy, Wenzhou can explore the sharing of data factors and innovative financing models for small and medium - sized enterprises. Through the cooperation and complementary advantages of the three cities, a digital and integrated factor market system can be jointly constructed.

Moreover, Zeng Gang specifically pointed out that "although Wenzhou is not located in the central area of Zhejiang or even the Yangtze River Delta, it has established good connections with other cities at home and abroad through Wenzhou merchants." Wenzhou's unique advantage in cross - regional development lies in the extensive Wenzhou merchant network across the country and the world.

In his opinion, in the next step, Wenzhou should strengthen industrial and scientific and technological cooperation with eastern Fujian regions such as Ningde to the south. Taking advantage of geographical proximity and complementary industries, such as Wenzhou's market network and private capital and Ningde's advanced manufacturing, a "two - way cooperation" model can be established to jointly create a growth region, thereby expanding Wenzhou's radiation scope and strategic hinterland as the "third growth pole."

Furthermore, Wenzhou can even form a complementary relationship with cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Zeng Gang said that large cities focus on large - scale fields, large - scale platforms, and leading enterprises, while Wenzhou can rely on its private - economy characteristics, focus on serving a large number of small and medium - sized enterprises, form a unique competitiveness in the segmented segments of the industrial chain, and make its business more substantial and extensive.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Urban Evolution". Author: Liu Xuqiang. Republished by 36Kr with permission.