With the arrival of the Start of Spring, spring has arrived. The first wave of investment promotion campaigns is currently in full swing across the country...

This year’s investment promotion efforts are different from previous years.

Investment promotion and spring are racing toward a "return" in tandem, with the most visible change coming from travel—"resuming mobility comes first."

Heading out, teams of investment promotion representatives and top officials are traveling north and south to negotiate, establish connections, and court investors.

Bringing them in: Wave after wave of domestic and international entrepreneurs and investors are setting out in droves to conduct site visits, hold discussions, and jointly plan for development.

Localities are accelerating the expansion of their “investment horizons,” broadening their geographic scope, and rolling out investment networks to compete vigorously for economic growth.

In the race for economic growth, investment promotion serves as the vanguard. This is evident not only in the work report but also in the footsteps of spring’s investment promotion efforts…

As the world moves forward, GuChuan United is making the most of the spring season, fully prepared to “welcome guests on our home turf.”

With a presence in 20 cities and drawing on 14 years of experience in “Internet-based investment promotion,” we assist government-run industrial parks in developing industries and boosting the economy. We sincerely hope to collaborate with you on investment strategies and discuss industrial development.

Innovative Approaches, New Strategies

As the market steadily recovers, investment promotion is taking on a fresh, upward momentum.

Promotions, negotiations, site visits, and knowledge-sharing sessions… one event after another is taking place, with local investment promotion efforts moving at a relentless pace—not only moving “at breakneck speed” but also employing “cutting-edge” approaches.

As early as the beginning of the year, Zhejiang launched the “Invest in Zhejiang” Global Investment Promotion Year, planning to send 200 teams overseas to attract investment. Among them, Hangzhou officially announced it would host at least 30 investment promotion events in the first quarter.

Even Shenzhen, which frequently makes headlines, has prioritized delivering results.

It held an investment promotion conference for the “20+8” industries’ 20 million square meters of industrial space in high-rise buildings, offering it to the market at a preferential rate of 35 yuan per square meter per month.

Recently, Qingdao set specific quantitative targets for this year: it aims to attract or break ground on 20 new projects worth over 5 billion yuan each, and sign agreements for more than 150 industrial chain projects with a total investment of over 500 million yuan each.

Why are they all vying to attract investment “nationwide and even globally”?

At present, while multiple headwinds have yet to subside and new uncertainties abound, a different picture is emerging across various regions: project breakouts are in full swing, enterprises are operating at full capacity, and investment tracks are back on track—this undoubtedly represents a major opportunity.

In other words, local governments are taking a proactive approach to investment promotion—balancing both domestic and international efforts—to fully capitalize on the dividends of high-quality resource restructuring.

It must be said that to fully enjoy the “springtime” of investment promotion, we must move even faster.

How can we move faster? We must seize “critical moments,” clear “bottlenecks,” and identify “leverage points.”

Not long ago, I learned that an investment promotion delegation from a certain district made Shenzhen its first stop and Guangzhou its second. While both cities were under the same umbrella, different teams were responsible for each, creating an “internal competition” where the two delegations vied to outdo one another, with all top leaders from sub-districts and departments participating.

I’ve observed that this “two-pronged” approach is particularly well-thought-out:

First, it makes the delegation’s objectives clearer, allowing them to get straight to the point.

Second, it highlights each team’s unique investment promotion strengths, maximizing efficiency.

Intensive Site Visits Spark a “Spring” Momentum

Recently, top Party and government officials have been leading the charge as “investment promoters braving wind and rain,” swarming in like minnows crossing a river. They have converged on the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions, concentrating in first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.

If investment promotion efforts falter, local economies will struggle to grow. Consequently, many top local officials are now personally overseeing investment promotion, implementing comprehensive strategies.

Take Guangdong, for example: the province has proposed supporting 12 prefectures in Eastern, Western, and Northern Guangdong, as well as three prefectures in the Pearl River Delta, to each build a primary platform for receiving industrial transfers, thereby promoting the orderly transfer and expansion of Pearl River Delta industries into these regions.

This approach not only provides a clear direction for investment promotion in Eastern, Western, and Northern Guangdong but has also attracted visits and inspections from cities outside the province.

In cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, and Zhuhai, key venues host multiple investment promotion events in a single day. A quick search online reveals that “Investment Promotion in Guangdong” has become a trending search term.

Take Zhangjiang as an example. As the core zone for Shanghai’s science and technology innovation center, it focuses on three key industrial sectors—integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals, and artificial intelligence—as well as startup incubation bases, attracting numerous investors to discuss projects there.

Recently, Qingdao municipal leaders led a delegation to Shanghai, visiting the Shanghai Institute of Artificial Intelligence, TE Connectivity, Danone Group, and the Shanghai Lingang Industrial Zone to invite foreign enterprises to discuss investment opportunities.

For Qingdao, the industrial chain remains incomplete, and innovation-driven leadership is not yet strong. Targeted investment promotion, in particular, is key to industrial development. It has become even more important to leverage the role of “key leaders,” such as district and municipal heads.

Some regions focus primarily on their own planned industries, no longer pursuing “bigger and stronger” but instead aiming for “precise and targeted” development. Others draw on experiences in emancipating the mind and reform, even directly adopting the “secret formula” of investment promotion mechanisms that create opportunities out of nothing.

Many localities have implemented a system where top leaders personally spearhead investment promotion. Driven by a sense of urgency—that they “cannot sit idly by, cannot afford to wait, and cannot afford to be slow”—this approach has directly intensified competition among regions, yielding phased results in investment promotion.

Economic Development Takes a Giant Leap Forward

In this year of leadership transition, stability remains the top priority.

Yesterday’s Government Work Report featured the word “stability” 90 times; in 2022 it appeared 78 times, in 2021 65 times, and in 2020 42 times.

GDP growth target: 5%.

This figure fully implements the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, rejecting “flood-style” stimulus and avoiding the depletion of future resources, while instead adhering to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability and focusing on promoting high-quality development.

When it comes to attracting investment, it is a two-way selection process that emphasizes adapting to local conditions and pursuing stable, mutually beneficial outcomes, requiring comprehensive consideration and coordinated planning.

Industrial development is subject to a “siphon effect.” Some regions have relatively weak economic strength and industrial foundations, making investment promotion genuinely challenging. Yet, projects are still being forced through using a “flood-irrigation” approach, “pushing ducks onto a perch” and ignoring the actual realities of local industrial development.

I also noted a telling detail: by the end of last year, the number of enterprises exceeded 52 million, individual businesses surpassed 110 million, and the total number of business entities exceeded 160 million—three times the figure from a decade ago.

This fact has bolstered confidence as regions across the country intensify their efforts to plan economic work.

It is clear that since the beginning of the new year, the all-out efforts to drive an overall improvement in economic performance have sent a strong signal of our determination to boost the economy, undoubtedly inspiring greater resolve to “give it our all.”

Ultimately, localities must stay focused on their annual goals and tasks. Good policies and practical measures must be “fully implemented and rolled out as quickly as possible,” creating conditions to “safeguard and support” enterprises in expanding markets and securing orders. We must not be slow or lackluster, lest we miss opportunities and hinder development.

So where is spring? Spring is in the hurried footsteps of those working to attract investment...