The year begins with a strong start, and that start is all about attracting investment.

The Yangtze River Delta, in particular, has fired the “first shot” in its economic mobilization campaign.

The efforts to stimulate market vitality and boost investment have been impressive. By getting a head start, pushing forward, and taking bold initiatives, investment promotion has become the top priority from the very beginning.

In the Yangtze River Delta, where “industrial strength is measured by industries and success is judged by projects,” the achievements in investment promotion are noteworthy.

This success stems from local governments’ focus on efficiency and targeted investment attraction.

In short, it boils down to four words: meticulous cultivation.

Expanding investment and prioritizing industrial planning

Originally, the Yangtze River Delta was merely a geographical region. Today, it has evolved into an economic concept. When one speaks of the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai leads the way as the flagship, supported by its neighboring cities.

In terms of economic output, the combined GDP of the three provinces and one municipality reached 29.03 trillion yuan last year, accounting for approximately 24% of the national total; compared to the previous year, the region’s combined GDP increased by 1.42 trillion yuan.

As one of the most economically dynamic regions, the Yangtze River Delta is home to eight cities with GDP exceeding one trillion yuan.

In 2022, Shanghai led the pack with 4.47 trillion yuan, followed by Suzhou in second place with 2.4 trillion yuan—the only other Yangtze River Delta city besides Shanghai to surpass the 2 trillion yuan mark. Hangzhou (1.88 trillion yuan), Nanjing (1.69 trillion yuan), Ningbo (1.57 trillion yuan), Wuxi (1.49 trillion yuan), and Hefei (1.2 trillion yuan) followed in that order.

However, in terms of GDP growth rates, only Hefei and Ningbo outperformed the national average, with growth rates of 3.6% and 3.5% respectively, while Wuxi’s 3% growth rate matched the national average.

Against this backdrop, local governments have been rolling out major policy documents to boost the economy. At the same time, they have introduced highly attractive investment incentive programs.

Therefore, when considering the “three drivers” of economic growth, investment remains the most effective tool.

When it comes to investment, it boils down to two key points: expanding industries and attracting projects.

Investment promotion in the Yangtze River Delta is not a sprint where "explosive power" determines success, but rather a marathon—a long-distance race spanning everything from industrial positioning to investment strategy.

Practice has proven that without a clear industrial plan, investment promotion efforts will not bear fruit.

Industrial positioning varies depending on the life cycle of a development zone. Crucially, it must be formulated based on the local development context; otherwise, it becomes a castle in the air, making subsequent investment promotion efforts difficult to carry out.

However, industrial planning cannot be achieved overnight. Without professional on-site inspections and precise investment analysis, it is impossible to grasp development trends and make forward-looking strategic arrangements; investment promotion will remain nothing more than “armchair theorizing.”

For many years, the GuChuan Industrial Research Institute has immersed itself in the field and worked meticulously, measuring the importance of industrial planning by the “results” of investment promotion.

Previously, a provincial-level development zone in Jiangsu approached the Guchuan Industrial Research Institute. The zone focuses on three key industries: equipment manufacturing, new energy and new materials, and biopharmaceuticals.

The park hoped to build upon its existing foundation in new energy and new materials to conduct an in-depth analysis of the lithium battery industry and provide actionable plans for industrial planning and investment promotion.

The industrial research team conducted extensive research and analysis of the sector. By leveraging local resource endowments, they identified core competitive advantages and assessed development potential based on factors such as industrial value-added, market size, key production stages, and technological maturity.

After one month, a 300-page implementation plan was delivered, offering recommendations to address issues such as excessively high production costs (including electricity rates) and the absence of leading enterprises in the local market.

Leveraging its database of over 880,000 investment projects, Guchuan uses the industrial consulting and planning report to screen and identify highly qualified prospective clients for the industrial park.

Revitalizing Resources, Empowering Advantageous Industries

As is well known, the prominence of Jiangsu’s county-level cities stems from their economic strength.

Over 500 billion yuan! Kunshan became the first county-level city to surpass a GDP of 500 billion yuan. Jiangsu has 16 more such “hundred-billion-yuan counties.”

What does a GDP exceeding 100 billion yuan actually mean? It is nearly equivalent to the level of a small or medium-sized prefecture-level city.

Why have Jiangsu’s county-level cities risen to prominence?

In my view, it is primarily due to the close collaboration between the government and enterprises, with the government committing all available resources to support them, thereby achieving rapid growth.

In other words, they mobilize resources on a large scale to empower key industries.

In this regard, Anhui has rolled out a “masterstroke” that not only caught everyone’s attention but also yielded astonishing results:

In the semiconductor sector, Changxin launched China’s first domestically produced 10nm-class 8Gb DDR4 memory chip and became an industry giant in just three years.

In the field of new display technologies, there are BOE and Visionox; by the end of 2020, BOE’s market capitalization had already surpassed 200 billion yuan.

In smart electric vehicles, there is NIO; in artificial intelligence, there is iFlytek.

As Yu Aihua, Secretary of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee, put it, this investment team relies not on “luck,” but on “skill.”

Back then, Hefei seized the opportunity presented by the large-scale shift of coastal industries to the interior. Leveraging its geographical advantages, the city consolidated and optimized resources, focused on critical supply chain nodes, and attracted major projects, thereby helping Hefei build up its industrial base.

Many regions view investment promotion as merely attracting high-quality enterprises to settle in, but strengthening and expanding existing enterprises is also the foundation for sustainable industrial development.

Even if a region lacks the conditions to attract high-quality enterprises in the short term, addressing the core challenges of existing enterprises and nurturing them into local industry leaders remains a critical step in industrial development.

It is precisely through this approach that Hefei has gone from “creating something out of nothing” to “overtaking competitors on a curve.”

Identifying Gaps and Filling Them: Industry Chain-Based Investment Promotion

A “practical strategy” for investment promotion in the Yangtze River Delta: refining industrial chains, cultivating anchor enterprises, and achieving “10-billion-yuan coverage” across all leading industrial clusters.

In other words, to refine and specialize in competitive industries, we must thoroughly understand the core sectors across the entire industrial chain and further expand the total volume and scale of these industries.

Only by dedicating careful attention to refining the industrial chain can investment promotion become more precise.

For example, in the life sciences and healthcare sector, while consolidating strengths in biopharmaceuticals and medical devices, the city must also rapidly enter entirely new fields such as synthetic biology and digital healthcare; meanwhile, the integrated circuit industry should focus on expanding into high-performance categories like CPUs, automotive-grade MCUs, and AI chips.

In the past, we would recruit whatever came our way, accepting whatever we could get. Now, our approach is highly targeted and precise. We do not accept just any project; instead, we focus on clustering within the industrial chain, driving its development by introducing high-quality enterprises.

It must be said that while companies currently prioritize industrial support systems and policy incentives—which may only address immediate costs—the long-term suitability of the business environment for sustainable growth requires even more careful consideration upfront.

When a region commits its "core industries" to industrial chain investment promotion, the goal is to foster the development of a cohesive industrial ecosystem. This is not simply a matter of "if others have it, we must have it too"; rather, it requires a grounded, pragmatic approach. Otherwise, the result may end up being a "hybrid that fits none," ultimately missing the optimal window for development.

To succeed in industrial chain investment promotion, the most critical step is to determine the industrial direction by integrating the region’s industrial needs, market conditions, and available talent and technical resources. It is essential to monitor broader trends in industrial restructuring and relocation and formulate investment strategies tailored to local conditions.

Before embarking on industrial chain investment promotion, the following preparatory work must be completed:

• Align with Industrial Development Directions

• Align with national policy directions

• Leverage local resource endowments

• Align with local market access standards

• When conducting industrial chain research, analyzing the relationships between upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors is a standard approach. This follows the production process and is referred to as the supply-demand chain.

• It is worth noting the exploration of associated industrial chains. First, there are sub-chains within the same industrial sector—in short, enterprises linked through production collaboration. Second, there are chains associated with other industrial sectors, which are connected through production factors and influence one another.

• The reason a company thrives after establishing operations is not only due to robust upstream and downstream relationships but, more importantly, the completeness of its collaborative and associated industries. This is one of the fundamental prerequisites for cultivating a leading enterprise in the industry chain.

• Conclusion

With the successful convening of the “First Meeting of the New Year,” the call to “seize the day” has been sounded. The macroeconomic environment has clearly improved, and every region is beginning to sprint forward, with an effective market and an active government complementing each other in the Yangtze River Delta.

As the Year of the Rabbit has arrived, it will be interesting to see how various regions will interpret “high-quality development.”