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Fuzhou is thecradle of China’s ancient maritime Silk Road. In 2015, Fujian Province was selected by the central government as one of the core areas in the 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road construction and Fuzhou a strategic pivot city for the initiative. In order to better serve the national “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Fuzhou has been striving to build itself into a hub city for the 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road strategy linking ASEAN and Taiwan and radiates inland China.
Mr. Yang Yimin, Mayor of Fuzhou, received an exclusive interview with Asia Pacific Daily (APD)
Prior to the opening of the first United Nations Maritime-Continental Silk Road (the UN-MCSR) Cities Alliance Forum, Mr. Yang Yimin, Mayor of Fuzhou, received an exclusive interview with Asia Pacific Daily(APD) during which he introduced the vision and strategies of Fuzhou’s economic and cultural development with the advantages of the “four-in-one” integrated identity.
The “four-in-one” integrated identity: an opportunity for “corner overtaking”
According to Mr. Yang, the year of 2015 was a blessed year for Fuzhou with the historically unprecedented opportunity brought by the “four-in-one” integrated identity. In 2015, Fuzhou was chosen as a core area of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (hereinafter referred as 21st MSR); the Fuzhou Area of the China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone was officially inaugurated; Fuzhou New Area was approved to become the 14thnational new area in China; and Fuzhou successfully passed the technological assessment for national eco-cities and was titled a National Eco-Civilization Demonstration Area. A national-level new area, a pilot free trade zone, a core area for the 21stCentury MSR and a demonstration area for eco-civilization – the “four-in-one” integrated identity has provided an unprecedented opportunity for Fuzhou to realize a “corner overtaking” with bright prospects.
The “four-in-one” integrated identity has brought to Fuzhou a significant flow of production factors including human resources, materials, capital and information, etc. As for how to seize this precious opportunity, Mr. Yang believed that efforts should be made in the following aspects:
1.Advance the industrial transformation and upgrade.Fuzhou should be built into an advanced manufacturing industry base in the southeastern coastal area, a modern financial center, a city of culture and innovation, a capital for cross-straits convention and exhibition, an economic highland for headquarters economy, a city of vibrant marine economy as well as a national key tourist destination.
2.Deepen the reform and opening-up efforts.Fuzhou should actively integrate into the “One Belt, One Road” strategy by comprehensively boosting the development of Fuzhou New Area, accelerating the construction of Fuzhou Area of the Pilot Free Trade Zone and the core area of the 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road. Efforts should also be made to expand cross-straits economic and trade cooperation, personnel and cultural exchanges so as to make Fuzhou a comprehensive pivot for communications with Taiwan.
3.Forge ahead the construction of a metropolitan area inFuzhou. To further highlight its international metropolitan city layout that enjoys a geographical location alongside the river and the sea, Fuzhou needs to implement a new round of city planning and accelerate its development eastward and southward and along the river and the sea shore.
4.Build civilized and harmonious ecosystems.Fuzhou needs to further implement the eco-civilization strategy and make continuous efforts to build itself into a National Forest City. Greater efforts should be devoted on ecological restoration and environment protection, and on optimizing the mechanisms and systems for eco-civilization, so as to build a demonstration area for this purpose.
5.Guaranteeand improve people’s livelihood. Fuzhou must work to increase the residents’ personal income, ensure the citizens’ equal access to public services, and to establish sound systems for public employment services, start-up business services, for modern education, for public health, for social security, for modern cultural service and for public security.
Give full play to geo-advantages and build a strategic new hub for the Maritime Silk Road
Fuzhou is the cradle of China’s ancient maritime Silk Road. It has a lot of work to do as part of the “One Belt, One Road” construction, as Mr. Yang noted. Based on the actual conditions of Fuzhou, transportation development, economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchange should be prioritized where breakthroughs should be achieved.
1.Transportation improvement. Fuzhou needs to quicken its pace in expanding the construction of its land, sea and air passages so as to transform into a transportation hub linking ASEAN countries, Taiwan and hinterland of China. In 2016, there will be a planned total investment on fixed assets of 9.42 billion RMB and one of 7.55 billion RMB on municipal key projects of transportation.
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Economic and trade cooperation. By making full use of the platforms established with the “four-in-one” integrated identity, Fuzhou should highlight in-depth cooperation with industrial parks and specific industries of 21stCentury MSR countries in Southeast Asia to become a hub linking the ASEAN Countries, Taiwan the hinterland of China. We need to build Fuzhou into a center for marine products exchange and a high-level base for marine aquaculture, fishery, processing and export with mature market mechanisms. Fuzhou also needs to explore new mechanisms for attracting foreign businesses and investments, expand outbound investment cooperation, and organize intensive transfer and upgrade of its traditional industries.
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People-to-people exchanges. By successfully organizing the Silk Road International Film Festival, Fuzhou will establish an identity and a cultural brand. The city should strengthen its coordination with other MSR cities applying for the world heritage honor and enhance its efforts in MSR publicity. The supports from overseas Chinese with Fuzhou origin and the World Association of Major Metropolises will facilitate Fuzhou to build sister city relationship with other MSR cities.
Highlight the cultural charisma of Fuzhou and build a time-honored city along the Maritime Silk Road
As a city with rich history, Fuzhou has a large collection of MSR-related historical sites, cultural relics and intangible cultural heritages.
Mijiang Bridge in Fuzhou.
As MayorYang has stressed, culture is acritical strength of Fuzhou. Rich history and cultural heritage are of crucial significance for Fuzhou’s integration into the new MSR strategy. Recently, Fuzhou has attached great importance to the discovery, protection and development of MSR-related cultural heritage. It has made great efforts to combine the Fuzhou culturewith MSR culture, and has been actively involved in the application for the honor of World Heritage for MSR historic culture. Fuzhou has been actively building platforms for people-to-people exchange along the new Silk Road and has successfully held the Cross-Straits Youth Festival, the 21stCentury MSR Mayor (Summit) Forum, the Silk Road International Film Festival and UN-MCSR Forum, etc. Meanwhile, Fuzhou is working on a cultural base for international exchanges, trying to establish a liaison office for the Cheng-Ho (Zheng He) Multi-Cultural and Friendship Association, and further promoting MSR tourism projects like the “ship administration culture”, to make Fuzhou a famous city for MSR-cultural tourism.
Open up and convergeresources and establish new platforms for economic and trade cooperation
Fuzhou has always been an important portfor China’s foreign economic and trade activities. So far, the Port of Fuzhou is linked with over 40 countries and regions. As of 2015, the contractual investment by Fuzhou-based businesses in countries along the Maritime Silk Roadtotaled 878 million USD, and ASEAN countries have invested in 356 projects in Fuzhou, with a total contractual foreign investment of 1 billion USD.
With the deepening of reform and opening-up and the construction of a “maritime Fuzhou”, large numbers of Fuzhou businesses are going overseas, and foreign businesses coming in. Capital introduction platforms like the Cross-Straits Fair for Economy and Trade, and the China International (Fuzhou) Fishery and Seafood Exposition, have closely related Fuzhou with the rest of the world. According to Mr. Yang, there are currently more than 3 million overseas Chinese with Fuzhou origin, and the city has established economic relations with over 200 countries and regions. To date, Fuzhou has utilized an accumulative total foreign capital of over 20 billion USD and the total trade volume with ASEAN, Middle East and African countries has surpassed 6.5 billion USD.
As for the construction of new economic and trade platforms in Fuzhou, Mayor Yang noted that Fuzhou should seize the unprecedented opportunity of building the Pilot Free Trade Zone and Fuzhou New Area, and make full use of the favorable conditions in opening-up to establish the exchange and cooperation mechanisms among the 21st Century MSR cities, and to propel the development of industrial parks and open platforms like Fuzhou Free Trade Port Zone, Fujian-Taiwan (Fuzhou) Blue Economy Industrial Park, and ASEAN Marine Product Exchange, etc. Moreover, Fuzhou will also integrate into regional economic cooperation, accelerate the aggregation of resources required for the new Silk Road, constantly broaden land and sea economic cooperation, expand cooperation possibilities and make every effort to build itself into a new platform and new base for outbound exchange and cooperation.
