A new round of reforms has officially begun.

The state has designated 10 regions to serve as pilot zones.

From the capital’s sub-center to the Yangtze River Delta (Southern Jiangsu, Hangzhou-Ningbo-Wenzhou, Hefei) and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Additionally, the Chengdu-Chongqing region (Chongqing, Chengdu) in central and western China, the central region (Zhengzhou, Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan), and the southeastern coastal region (Fuzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou).

The core focus this time is on the market-based allocation of factors of production.

This encompasses not only traditional factors such as land, labor, and capital,

It also encompasses new types of factors such as data, computing power, and airspace.

At the local level, this means allowing the market to determine resource allocation rather than relying on administrative measures.

01 Land Intensification: Breaking the Traditional Land Supply Model

Land transfer fees have become a core source of revenue for local governments.

This model has supported urban development for a certain period.

However, it has also led to issues such as a disconnect between supply and market demand, as well as excessively high land costs for enterprises.

For industrial land, the focus is on promoting models such as standard plots, lease-to-own arrangements, long-term leases, and flexible supply.

For startups and growing enterprises, the ability to flexibly choose land lease terms and area helps reduce initial investment risks.

For large-scale projects, long-term leases ensure land stability, providing robust land support for business development.

As industries undergo transformation and upgrading, land requirements for projects are becoming increasingly diverse, necessitating the integration of functions such as R&D, production, warehousing, and logistics within a single space.

This reform explores mixed-use land supply, encouraging a single plot to accommodate two or more compatible uses to meet the needs of different industrial sectors.

The combination of mixed-use industrial land supply and flexible land-use conversion will transform the traditional single-use model of industrial land.

In some areas, due to past irrational industrial layouts and poor corporate management, there is a large amount of land that has been approved but not supplied, or is idle and underutilized.

By revitalizing this existing land through methods such as reclamation, land swaps, and joint development, we can free up space for urban development to accommodate new industrial projects.

02 Labor Mobility: Key to Serving High-End Talent

Labor, in essence, is “people.”

High-end talent is the cornerstone of a company’s establishment and growth.

In the past, issues such as difficulties in accessing social security across regions, barriers posed by household registration policies, and uneven public services have left many enterprises in a predicament when investing across regions.

R&D personnel were reluctant to relocate with projects due to the inability to transfer medical and social insurance coverage across regions; key members harbored reservations about relocating because they feared their children would be unable to access quality education in the investment location.

Moreover, some high-end talent, constrained by residency policies, find it difficult to settle permanently in a new location even if they are willing to join a company.

These “lifestyle concerns” have become major obstacles hindering enterprises’ cross-regional expansion and local efforts to attract high-quality projects, creating a stark contrast with the urgent demand for technical talent in the high-tech industry.

In particular, within the high-end manufacturing sector, the stability of R&D teams and the recruitment of technical talent are decisive factors for project implementation and industrial development.

For local development, the smooth flow of labor and the equitable distribution of public resources will drive the clustering of high-value-added industries and enhance innovation capabilities.

The cross-regional mobility of high-end talent is often accompanied by the dissemination and integration of technology and knowledge, which promotes the consolidation of R&D resources and accelerates the commercialization of technological achievements.

For example, Shenzhen-based electronics and information technology companies have established production bases in Dongguan.

This allows them to benefit from Shenzhen’s innovative atmosphere while leveraging Dongguan’s manufacturing strengths, creating a “R&D + production” synergy.

Market-oriented reform of the labor factor is, in essence, a “people-centered” institutional innovation that reconstructs the “talent ecosystem” for investment promotion and industrial development.

03 Synergy of Capital: No Longer a Simple Addition

In the past, regional development had a distinct characteristic.

Local governments directly participated in industrial competition, with state-owned capital serving as the primary source of funding for many industries.

While this had its benefits, it also led to overcapacity and industry-wide stagnation.

Whenever a hot industry emerged, countless capital sources and enterprises would rush in to compete on price and production capacity, ultimately leading to developmental deadlocks.

This reform of capital factors is also one of the key priorities.

Essentially, it encourages enterprises—particularly small and medium-sized private enterprises—to raise funds directly through channels such as the stock market.

Of course, more local governments will promote the development of inclusive finance to reduce financing costs for startups and small and micro enterprises.

This approach is efficient and conducive to innovation, while also helping to reduce overcapacity and industry stagnation.

In terms of reform, greater emphasis will be placed on systemic integration and synergistic efficiency, moving away from the simple aggregation of individual factors.

For example, the plan for Beijing’s urban sub-center proposes “promoting the integration of technology and capital,” exploring ways to advance the capitalization of technology.

In the past, technology companies often faced financing difficulties due to their asset-light nature and high risks.

Through institutional innovation, this pilot initiative breaks through traditional bottlenecks and optimizes risk sharing, ensuring that capital is no longer confined to traditional collateral.

Instead, capital is deeply tied to factors such as technology and talent, guiding it precisely toward R&D and innovation.

04 Technology and Data: Mutual Utilization and Commercialization of Results

Previously, this phenomenon was common.

It was difficult to commercialize technological achievements; professors’ patents sat unused in drawers, and corporate needs went unmet.

In universities and research institutes, the R&D achievements of technical personnel mostly belonged to the institutional level, serving at most as a basis for external professional titles.

Overall, this reform has significantly relaxed restrictions on technology.

This includes allowing innovative technologies from universities, research institutes, and enterprises to be freely traded in the market, thereby promoting the commercialization of technological achievements.

Crucially, researchers are granted greater autonomy in technology commercialization.

For example, key cities in southern Jiangsu allow researchers to take leave for up to nine years to start their own businesses. Even if their ventures fail, they can return to their original research institutions and continue to enjoy their professional titles and benefits.

This combination of “flexibility and safeguards” stimulates researchers’ enthusiasm for innovation and provides core support for local technology supply.

When regions operate in isolation, data across cities remains completely disconnected.

However, through factor-based reforms, the data divide between different regions can be bridged, enabling sharing and interoperability.

In the past, most public data was stored within government systems, making it difficult for external parties to access.

The efficient allocation of data resources has a particularly significant empowering effect on investment promotion and industrial development.

This is precisely the case with GuChuan Lianxing, which has built a sustainable and stable channel for industrial projects based on the “Internet + Big Data + Investment Promotion” model.

To date, the total number of projects exceeds 1.32 million, with over 9,200 enterprises successfully established.

By leveraging vast amounts of data, we capture market shifts and industrial relocations, identify the movements of potential investors, and analyze project site selection preferences and requirements.

As a service provider for regional economic development, we use data to drive efficient outreach and targeted investment promotion, helping localities anticipate investment trends and adjust their investment attraction strategies in a timely manner.

At this stage, the efficient allocation of new factors such as data, computing power, and technology provides the “raw materials” for the big data and artificial intelligence industries.

In practical applications, this not only drives the digital transformation of traditional industries but also provides new directions for industrial upgrading, thereby creating new growth points for economic development.

Furthermore, supported by this high-quality data, enterprises’ decision-making efficiency and predictive capabilities will be significantly enhanced.

This pilot initiative incorporates new factors into a market-based allocation framework, aiming to unlock their value through institutional innovation and empower the development of new-quality productive forces.

In Conclusion

Ten pilot regions are exploring market-oriented reforms of production factors.

Land allocation moves away from rigid administrative allocation to meet the diverse needs of different enterprises.

Labor is breaking free from geographical barriers, providing the confidence for cross-regional investment and expansion.

Capital is breaking free from the vicious cycle of internal competition, forming deep synergies with technical talent.

Technology and data fully unleash their value, becoming the core engines of new-quality productive forces.

These factors, flowing autonomously and in an orderly manner, will be like an endless stream of “living water,” nourishing the towering tree of China’s high-quality economic development.