The provincial capital is "determined to excel" — just how hard is this major central Chinese province striving?

According to Nanchang Release, on the mornings of July 6 and July 7, the Conference on Implementing the Provincial Capital Leadership Strategy and Promoting High-Quality Development of the Real Economy in Nanchang was held in Nanchang. On the morning of July 6, the first phase of the conference took place, with 20 entrepreneur representatives delivering speeches. Yin Hong, Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, Xu Lingyi, Head of the First Central Steering Group, Hu Zucai, Deputy Head of the First Central Steering Group, and other relevant leaders attended the meeting, which was presided over by Ye Jianchun, Governor of Jiangxi Province.

A strong provincial capital makes a strong province; a prosperous provincial capital makes a prosperous province. The First Central Steering Group and the Provincial Party Committee have worked together in the same direction to implement the provincial capital leadership strategy, promote the high-quality development of Nanchang's real economy, and solidly carry out research and enterprise service work.

More than 1,000 people attended the conference, including members of the leading bodies of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, principal leading comrades of the Party groups of the Jiangxi Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee and the Provincial Political Consultative Conference, Party secretaries of all prefecture-level cities, principal leading comrades of relevant provincial-level departments, members of the four leading bodies of Nanchang, principal leading comrades of Nanchang municipal departments and relevant local Party committees in the Nanchang Metropolitan Area, representatives of academicians, leading talents and scientific research institutions, as well as representatives of industrial enterprises, producer service enterprises and export-oriented economic enterprises.

By 2025, the list of Chinese cities with a GDP exceeding 1 trillion yuan has reached 29. Focusing on the central region, since Hefei joined the "1-trillion-yuan club" in 2020, the four provincial capitals of Wuhan, Changsha, Zhengzhou and Hefei have formed a pattern of "four pillars standing side by side". Since then, there has been an obvious gap, with no new cities entering the ranks.

At the end of May this year, the press conference held in Jiangxi under the theme of "Looking Forward to Nanchang's New Development Blueprint in the 15th Five-Year Plan Period and Comprehensively Enhancing the City's Core Competitiveness and Influence" clearly stated that by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Nanchang's annual GDP growth will reach around 5%, its total economic output will exceed 1 trillion yuan, its per capita GDP will exceed 20,000 US dollars, and its contribution to the province's economic development will be further improved.

For the central and western regions, the "strong provincial capital" strategy is often a realistic choice determined by the stage of development. Taking Jiangxi and Anhui as examples, some experts have pointed out that the core of the gap in the implementation of the "strong provincial capital" strategy between the two provinces lies in Anhui's more precise industrial layout. In their view, drawing on Hefei's experience, the key to Nanchang's "strong provincial capital" initiative is to strengthen industrial support and expand the real economy.

Serving enterprises is an important way to promote the development of the real economy. Shortly after the aforementioned press conference (in June), Jiangxi, with the theme of "Implementing the Provincial Capital Leadership Strategy and Promoting High-Quality Development of Nanchang's Real Economy", arranged for leading officials at the provincial, municipal and county (district) levels to visit more than 400 enterprises (scientific research institutions) in Nanchang to carry out research and service work for enterprises.

From the perspective of local media, this is a research and service initiative deployed at a high political stance, promoted with high standards and implemented with high quality —

Led by the First Central Steering Group and headed by the main leading comrades of the Provincial Party Committee, the work was synchronously deployed and implemented layer by layer at the provincial, municipal and county (district) levels. A joint provincial-municipal working group was established, with five special groups including comprehensive coordination and research services, forming a four-level collaborative working pattern of "supervision by higher-level authorities, provincial-municipal coordination, county-level implementation and full regional coverage".

A practical example is that during the research and service process, suggestions from enterprises such as Changelight and Jiangling Motors on strengthening the overall guidance of industrial development have been incorporated into the formulation of Nanchang's 15th Five-Year Plan for New-Type Industrialization Development.

It is reported that all research and service work was completed by June 26, collecting more than 1,000 valid suggestions and problems of various types. These have been sorted out and filed by category, with responsible departments, handling measures and completion deadlines specified for each item, and the whole process is subject to follow-up and closed-loop management with completion verification.

Shortly before this conference (on July 3), the Standing Committee of the Nanchang Municipal Party Committee held a meeting to review several measures on implementing the provincial capital leadership strategy and promoting the high-quality development of Nanchang's real economy. The meeting emphasized that efforts should be focused on key areas, the enterprise service mechanism should be continuously optimized, and collaborative linkage should be strengthened to form a joint force, so as to ensure that relevant policies are implemented and take root as soon as possible.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "City Evolution Theory", written by Yang Huan, and published with authorization from 36Kr.