BUSINESS CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION Monday, November 16, 2020

14TH FIVE-YEAR PLAN | SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Industrial progress creates moderate prosperity

Jiangsu shows ment in Taicang, noting that it is friendly, convenient and approach­ how to balance ing German standards of transpar­ socioeconomic ency. “There is lots of competition among places in the southern parts trade­offs while of Jiangsu to attract foreign invest­ ment, so that already improves the creating lively service attitude,” he said. biz environment Taicang has become a center of German companies because of its business environment and because By DAVID BLAIR of vast improvements in living envi­ ronment. “The place has changed A recent week­long visit to many from an industrial spot with lots of modern factories, beautiful parks, smoking chimneys to a developed and pleasant villages and farmland area and a very attractive city. Ger­ in East China’s Jiangsu province mans have everything they need with a group of international jour­ here. It is a green city,” Muller said. nalists made me think of English Xiaokang also focuses on ways to poet William Blake’s magnificent achieve economic growth while pro­ song Jerusalem. Much of Jiangsu’s tecting the environment, as industry is far from the coal­fired expressed in President Xi Jinping’s “dark satanic mills” Blake described statement that “clear waters and in his poem, which was written in the green mountains are as valuable as 1800s as England first grappled with mountains of gold and silver”. the economic, environmental and Achieving strong environmental societal consequences of the early protection goals is not easy and often stages of the industrial revolution. requires a trade­off in lowering Though many challenges remain, measured GDP growth and cutting Jiangsu is making strong progress jobs. In 2018, Jiangsu pledged to toward improving the lives of its cit­ reduce air pollution. This will entail izens by upgrading industry, fight­ cutting steel capacity by 17.5 million ing pollution, and creating services metric tons and banning new capaci­ and public goods such as excellent ty in the steel, coke, primary alumi­ parks and transportation. num, casting cement and glass Jerusalem expresses societal sectors, and shutting down all inde­ goals so strongly that it had become pendent coke plants near the Yang­ the anthem of British workers’ Visitors check out flexible grips during the World Internet of Things Expo in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, in September 2019. tze River and Taihu Lake. movements. Blake’s dream of build­ ZHU JIPENG / FOR CHINA DAILY An April 2020 research report by ing a new “Jerusalem in England’s the Development Research Center of green and pleasant land” is similar the State Council concluded: “In to the Chinese concept of xiaokang. recent years, Jiangsu province has Often translated into English as been actively promoting high­quality “moderately prosperous society”, development. It has made significant xiaokang actually includes much progress in improving air quality, wider goals than the limited idea of continuously reducing the total economic growth implied by the amount of pollutants discharged English phrase. from major industries and realizing First explained by Confucius, prominent achievements in urban xiaokang incorporates ideas about green development, through opti­ what a person needs to be happy. mizing structure, emphasizing the But, broader than Aristotle’s near­ key issues, and implementing com­ contemporaneous idea of human prehensive measures. flourishing, xiaokang emphasizes “At the same time, Jiangsu’s eco­ policies that a nation needs to follow nomic development is still facing to make its people happy. severe challenges of air pollution for Certainly, a good level of material a long period of time to come. For prosperity, or raw GDP, is needed. example, the difficulty of fundamen­ But xiaokang also emphasizes the Left: An aerial view of SAIC’s assembly line in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in April. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY tally changing the coal­based energy need to ensure the well­being of Right: An aerial view of the wetland park near Taihu Lake in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. YANG LEI / XINHUA structure in the short term, bottle­ everyone, while acknowledging the necks in green transformation and need for entrepreneurs and busi­ upgrading of the industry …” nessmen to drive development. group learned the story of Taibo, the because it offers productive capabil­ booming domestic car market, so workers’ injuries have been prac­ Our group of journalists was able In an explanatory speech deliv­ first son of King Tai of the Zhou ity and because it gives them access though it exports about 20 percent tically eliminated. to visit parks and protected farm­ ered to the Fifth Plenary Session of Dynasty (c.11th century­256 BC), to the Chinese market. of its production, mainly to the Mid­ Yao Xinyu, senior manager of the land that illustrated strides Jiangsu the 19th CPC Central Committee, who established the state of Wu, 3) Prosperity has spread from dle East and Norway. East China region for Cainiao, said is making to improve the environ­ which was convened from Oct 26 to which was centered on present­day first­tier cities to smaller cities Yu Haibin, general manager of the company designs and builds the ment and to provide opportunities 29 in Beijing, President Xi Jinping Wuxi on the north side of Taihu Lake. around the region. Many smaller Brose Taicang Automotive Systems robots itself. “The key is artificial for its people to experience nature. said China can complete the goal of One of Taibo’s first priorities was cities and counties in Jiangsu offer Co, said his experience is that the intelligence. When we deploy more The city of Taicang has retained a building a moderately prosperous increasing the productivity of the excellent infrastructure and access local government and businesses robots, we need to store more data lot of its territory as farmland, with society in all respects on schedule. It area by importing new technology to skilled workers while the local treat each other as family members. on our system. So only Cainiao is three concentrated developed areas is “completely possible” for China to from more northern parts of China. governments compete to offer the “Whenever the company finds diffi­ able to support the huge orders from around the city. We were able to see meet the current standards for high­ A visit to two factories and one best business environment. culties or problems, we consult with Tmall (Alibaba’s online marketplace the Lianghong Wetland Park and income countries by the end of the logistics warehouse illustrates Jiang­ The SAIC factory making Maxus the relevant government authority. for established Chinese and foreign the nearby Hongshan Intelligent 14th Five­Year Plan period (2021­25) su’s move to upgraded, efficient, and vehicles near Nanjing is able to pro­ We work with the person in charge brands). We are the only company Farmland, near Wuxi, both of which and to double the total economic environmentally friendly industry. duce cars efficiently because it has of the issue to find solutions. The able to process this huge amount of were designed to protect the area’s volume or per capita income by Plus, these show the importance of the lowest inventory of all carmakers, government treats us the same as data because we have the needed water quality. 2035, he said. the dual­circulation model of the said Wang Ying, director of the plant. local companies and provides high­ algorithms and systems,” he said. We saw the magnificent new We journalists had the privilege of economy, which emphasizes produc­ A walk around the plant shows a quality services,” he said. Thousands of German plus other Tangshan Quarry Park near Nanjing visiting a wide variety of factories, tion for domestic demand while still very clean, productive environment The Cainiao warehouse in Wuxi, a European and American companies and the stunning flowers of Nianhu­ farms, natural sites, and historical maintaining strong international with a large deployment of robots. division of Alibaba, also illustrates have moved to Taicang. Matthias awan Park in the Mashan National sites near the cities of Nanjing, Wuxi, trade and investment ties. According to Wang, the average the upgrading and high­tech trans­ Muller, managing director of the Scenic Area near Wuxi, which give and Taicang. These places gave us a The main lessons learned from employee in the plant makes 8,000 formation of business in Jiangsu, German Center for Industry and people access to nature. good view of the policies that an these visits are: yuan ($1,207) per month, though and throughout China. Trade in Taicang, said that German Building one of the world’s great­ industrial province is implementing 1) Wages are rising and the com­ that entails a lot of overtime work. Partly because of rising wages and companies that want to compete in est industrial centers while achiev­ to achieve the economic aspects of petition for workers is fierce, so The company decided to locate great competition for workers, the this market need to move here and ing all the aspects of xiaokang takes xiaokang while improving the envi­ companies are forced to upgrade the plant in Nanjing because Jiang­ warehouse has implemented some that a significant portion of manu­ time and effort. Jiangsu is taking big ronmental and lifestyle aspects. their production technology. In su has a good business environment of the world’s most advanced auto­ facturing is moving. “They are find­ steps and reaching notable success­ Jiangsu province has a long histo­ many cases, factories in Jiangsu are and also especially because Nanjing mation to cut the labor count from ing it harder and harder to compete es in this long journey. ry of focusing on economic produc­ world leaders in efficiency. has lots of universities, so needed 2,000 to less than 1,000. A large ben­ against Chinese companies that are tivity. In a visit to the restored 2) The best international compa­ talented people are available. efit is that the robots do the danger­ closing the quality gap,” he said. Contact the writer at ancient Meili town in Wuxi, our nies are locating in Jiangsu, both The plant focuses mostly on the ous work of moving heavy packages, He praised the business environ­ [email protected]

The final misconception is that China’s development is found only Tours dispel misconceptions, show reality of China’s growth in a few coastal cities. Again, that might have been true at one time, stood even by well­educated people business owners said that compet­ ment. The atmosphere in Chinese ince, I was lucky to meet a young but it certainly no longer is. Great in Western countries. ing for labor is their biggest chal­ cities and counties reminds me of medical expert who is building a transport and communications REPORTER’S Even people who read seriously lenge now, so they are having to the “city booster” governments that business of making advanced diag­ infrastructure has been built LOG about China have outdated ideas move up­market to higher value­ created prosperity in the US, but are nostic equipment for hospitals. throughout the country. So, local based on books that may portray added specialized products and are sadly less common there now. Throughout the country, there are entrepreneurs in inland cities and By David Blair China the way it was 10 or 20 years investing heavily in automation. The third misconception is that millions of such entrepreneurs. small towns and counties are seiz­ ago. The reality today is very differ­ This is all a very good thing for the China’s business is all huge and The fourth misconception is that ing the chance to build businesses. ent. nation and its workers. State­owned. This misses the entre­ China’s market is closed to foreign­ In an earlier visit to southwestern uring the month of Septem­ One big misconception is that The second big misconception is preneurial and creative side of Chi­ ers. Again, that is not true. The Yunnan province, I saw the lives of ber, I was lucky to get an Chinese business models are based that the government is somehow na’s society. I had the chance to talk national government has long been farmers transformed by the creation D opportunity to visit many on cheap labor. In the 1990s and ear­ hostile to private business. I saw with many entrepreneurs who are pushing a series of reforms to wel­ of the world’s second­largest flower types of businesses in three separate ly 2000s, many businesses did find that this is completely untrue. Most taking advantage of a very good come foreign firms. In many cases, market, from which millions of flow­ areas of China — Huzhou in Zheji­ that their comparative advantage in local governments are enthusiasti­ business environment and great the government actively encourages ers are shipped by air to consumers ang province, the cities of Nanjing, international trade was based on an cally implementing national infrastructure to build small and foreign companies whose competi­ throughout China and overseas. Wuxi, and Taicang in Jiangsu prov­ abundant supply of somewhat low­ reforms designed to enforce the medium­sized enterprises. tion and advanced technology will In recent decades, China’s econo­ ince, and villages in Suning county skilled, low­cost labor. commercial rule of law and to In Suning county, Hebei province, force local firms to up their game. my has been transformed in incredi­ of Hebei province. But, Chinese wages have grown improve the ease of doing business. I talked to entrepreneurs who are In Jiangsu province, I saw many ble ways. People have built richer What I saw further convinced me an average of 11 percent per year Local governments throughout using access to digital commerce to foreign firms, and their foreign exec­ lives and been able to follow their that Chinese business and industry over the last 15 years, so companies China now compete to create good build prosperity by manufacturing utives, making their home in local dreams. It has been my pleasure to are much more entrepreneurial and that relied primarily on low wages business environments that attract fishing rods and selling them online. areas that were welcoming in both see the factors that are truly driving advanced than is commonly under­ have had to go elsewhere. Many both domestic and foreign invest­ Near Huzhou city, in Zhejiang prov­ the business and the personal sense. China’s growth.