Interpret the Yingkou Model

Author: Cao Xiaofeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-24
Features: The "Yingkou Socio-Economic Tracking Survey" was approved by the Research Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in March 2004 and included as a sub-project of the National Social Science Fund Key Project "China Socio-Economic Tracking Survey." This tracking survey is a continuation of the "China City and County Socio-Economic Survey—Yingkou Survey" conducted in 1989. The resulting book is chronologically and content-wise linked to "China's National Conditions Series—City and County Socio-Economic Survey: Yingkou Volume," published by the China Encyclopedia Press in 1992.
This book uses the 15-year period from 1989 to 2003, during which Yingkou underwent significant changes in all major socio-economic aspects under the reform and opening-up policy, as its temporal and spatial framework. It comprehensively and systematically reflects the achievements and challenges Yingkou faced in its transition from a planned economy to a market economy, covering economic, political, cultural, and social dimensions. It also explores the underlying causes and internal laws of its development and changes from multiple levels and perspectives.
Fifteen years, compared to China's millennia of history, are merely a fleeting moment, but from the perspective of China's social transformation, these 15 years were revolutionary. Not only did Yingkou achieve a historic shift from a planned economy system to a market economy system, but it also experienced profound changes in political systems, cultural systems, and even in people's values, moral standards, and lifestyles. The reform and development journey of Yingkou over these 15 years is representative of Liaoning Province and the Northeast region. Therefore, reviewing and summarizing the historical changes Yingkou has undergone will help deepen the understanding of Liaoning's socio-economic conditions among various sectors of society and provide a reliable basis for the formulation and improvement of medium- and long-term development plans by provincial and municipal Party committees and governments.
With approval from the overall research team, the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences mobilized 14 core researchers specializing in economics, sociology, political science, and cultural studies to form the Yingkou Regional Conditions Survey Team. Supported by the Communist Party of Yingkou Municipal Committee and the Municipal Government, the team conducted a nearly month-long comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth survey of Yingkou's socio-economic development since 1989, particularly since 1998, using a combination of literature review, statistical analysis, comprehensive surveys, typical surveys, and case studies. During the survey, some key aspects and content from the previous survey were revisited, especially the main indicators of socio-economic development. The team ensured continuity with the previous survey while not being confined by its framework, particularly in fully reflecting new phenomena, fields, and issues that emerged during the reform and development process. This led to the creation of the book "Interpreting the Yingkou Model."
The book's key feature lies in placing Yingkou's reform and development practices within the broader context of China's reform and opening-up to examine, organize, and analyze the real conditions and causes of economic, social, urban-rural, regional, and human-nature relationships in Yingkou over the past 15 years. Over these 15 years, Yingkou's economic achievements were evident in increased economic output, optimized structures, higher openness, and accumulated regional wealth.
Yingkou's national economic output achieved a leap, with its gross domestic product (GDP) rising from 3.858 billion yuan in 1989 to 25.34 billion yuan in 2003, a 5.57-fold increase, with an average annual growth rate of 14.23% at constant prices. The industrial structure developed healthily toward a more advanced and rational direction, with the proportion of the three industries adjusted from 25:50:25 in 1990 to 11.92:52.28:35.8 in 2003.
The comprehensive progress of Yingkou's social undertakings was primarily reflected in the significant improvement of people's living standards and living environments, as well as the continuous enhancement of social security functions. From 1989 to 2003, the per capita disposable income of urban residents increased from 1,346 yuan to 7,318 yuan, a 4.44-fold increase, with an average annual growth rate of 12.86%. The per capita net income of rural residents rose from 1,002 yuan to 3,561 yuan, a 2.55-fold increase, with an average annual growth rate of 9.47%. In 2003, 258,000 people in the city participated in the old-age insurance program, achieving 100% coverage.
Given such remarkable achievements in socio-economic development, what are the fundamental experiences of Yingkou? How did Yingkou advance and achieve success in its structural adjustments? How did Yingkou ensure that all members of society continuously shared the fruits of economic reform and development under the principle of enriching the people and strengthening the city? The book provides clear descriptions and in-depth analyses with vivid facts, solid data, and rational reflections.
Another key feature of the book is its focus on reflecting the new changes and typical experiences of Yingkou in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which, in a sense, revolves around summarizing the "Yingkou Model." As the second-largest port city in Liaoning, Yingkou has experienced a process of growth, decline, and revival since the reform and opening-up. In the early 1990s, the "Northeast Phenomenon," characterized by regional economic decline, was prominently reflected in Yingkou. After the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Yingkou, despite falling into severe difficulties with little external support, relied primarily on its own efforts to drive innovation in development strategies through ideological liberation. It vigorously cultivated new growth engines and structural adjustment subjects, creating conditions to enhance internal development momentum and overall competitiveness.
Yingkou pioneered strategic adjustments in ownership structure and implemented strategies such as "managing the city" in Liaoning, achieving major breakthroughs in reform. It established new advantages in economic structure, system and mechanisms, opening-up, and development environment, gradually shaking off its difficulties and achieving a fundamental turning point, embarking on a path of sustained, rapid, and healthy development. Thus, through pioneering practices, Yingkou became a successful model for advancing market-oriented reforms and revitalization in Liaoning's old industrial base.
The "Yingkou Model" can be summarized as: fully breaking through and comprehensively advancing the property rights reform of state-owned enterprises, accelerating the marketization of systems and the privatization of enterprises, driving structural adjustments through system reform, and promoting the coordinated development of enterprises of various ownerships and the comprehensive revitalization of regional economy and society.
The "Yingkou Model" is a product of ideological liberation and mindset transformation. Its essence is a win-win development of revitalizing state-owned enterprises and empowering the private sector. Accelerating the transformation of government functions is the shining highlight of the "Yingkou Model," while fully leveraging comparative advantages is its distinctive feature.
The book also reviews and analyzes the formulation and implementation of major strategic policies in Yingkou's socio-economic development over the past 15 years, providing forward-looking predictions and prospects for its future development, along with corresponding strategic ideas and policy recommendations.
Yingkou's natural conditions, cultural heritage, industrial foundation, and open environment have become the foundation and source of its socio-economic development, holding immense potential for its future growth. As Yingkou gradually rises in its economic strategic position in Liaoning and the Northeast, it will have greater space for industrial and urban division of labor in the next round of regional economic adjustments and expansion, and the functions of its port city will be further leveraged.
The book proposes that Yingkou should position itself as a regional central city based on its port, with structural adjustments and total expansion as the main focus, building a new industrial system with port economy as its characteristic. It should use the development of the port to promote the growth of "port city economy," achieving synchronized progress in emerging industries and urban expansion, striving to develop Yingkou into another important central city in the Shengda Economic Belt in the near future.