● What makes these 10 towns in Sichuan rank among the top 500 in China? ● What did Sichuan do right in the past year from 3 to 10? ● Can the township economy break the unbalanced and uncoordinated development status in Sichuan? ● How far is Sichuan from becoming a "billion-yuan town"?

A single spark can start a prairie fire. A small town can thrive together.

In May, the research report on "Top 500 Township Economies and Top 100 in Central China" and "Top 100 in Western China" was officially released.

As Sichuan, which has surpassed Henan to become the "largest province in central and western China," has also made leapfrog progress in this township economy test.

Last year, the "Golden Trio" team composed of Qingyi Town and Yongxing Town in Fucheng District, and Xiuwen Town in Dongpo District continued to grow, and seven new faces emerged this year. Sichuan's strongest "town" cluster is injecting new momentum into the rise of the west.

Although for a province with over 2,000 administrative towns, only 0.5% of them made the list, it is not exactly an outstanding achievement. However, within a year, from 3 towns to 10 towns on the list, Sichuan is also demonstrating its strength as the "largest province in central and western China" to the nation through its own actions.

So, how did Sichuan's "top 10" towns stand out from 2,016 administrative towns across Sichuan (as of 2022) and over 20,000 township competitors nationwide, becoming a model for high-quality development of China's township economy?

01 Urban-Rural Integration: The Backbone Force to Break the Lag in Urbanization Process

Harmony in diversity leads to common progress and integration.

Nearly 500,000 square kilometers of land bring abundant and diverse material resources to the land of Sichuan, but it also creates a vast disparity in the development of the Sichuan-Shu region.

"Strong capital" Chengdu contributes about one-third of Sichuan's total GDP of 6.01 trillion yuan, a situation that has persisted for many years. This is not only a manifestation of uneven and uncoordinated economic development but also a "wake-up call" for the urban-rural gap.

Image Source: Chengdu Release

Currently, China's urbanization rate has increased from 53.10% in 2012 to 66.16% in 2023, and the urbanization rate of Chengdu's permanent residents has even surpassed the 80% mark, far exceeding the national average. However, behind this, the current situation of Sichuan province as a whole is still striving towards the "passing line" of 60%, while cities in northeastern Sichuan such as Bazhong and Guangyuan are still struggling to "climb" below the "watershed" of 50%.

Therefore, promoting urban-rural integration development is the only way for Sichuan to narrow the urban-rural gap, shorten the urban gap, and drive the prosperity of the whole province.

In 2022, the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the "Implementation Plan for New Urbanization in Sichuan Province during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period," which clearly proposed "promoting urban-rural integration development with counties as the basic unit"; in 2024, the "Work Report of the Sichuan Provincial People's Government" once again emphasized that it will promote urbanization construction with counties as an important carrier this year.

The foundation of county development is the township area that "connects urban areas and rural areas."

Therefore, "urban-rural cooperation" has been included in the primary indicators of CCID Consulting, and "urban-rural integration" representatives are naturally the preferred choice for the top 500 towns.

Huangshui Town in Shuangliu District is a new face among the "top 10." The development of its airport economy has attracted leading aviation and logistics companies such as Airbus, Cainiao, and SF Express to successively settle in. Behind the airport economy is this aviation town's rural complex awakened by farming tools, and this small town surrounded by the remaining ranges of Mumashan Mountain, laying out a colorful "flower path" for urban-rural integration with its colorful flower fields.

Image Source: Youth Shuangliu

In recent years, Huangshui Town has fully excavated and utilized natural and cultural resources, creating a "Huangshui Model" for urban-rural integration. On the one hand, relying on cultural and tourism projects such as Guangdu Museum and Airport Flower Fields, Huangshui Town has laid out and built new "agriculture+" consumption scenarios such as Qushang Tianyuan, Shangquli, and Wenwulinpan Settlements, boosting the integration of agriculture, commerce, culture, and tourism. On the other hand, Huangshui Town is committed to promoting the modernization of agriculture, focusing on local characteristic agricultural products such as Erjingtiao peppers, Mumashan crisp peaches, and Mumashan fragrant pears, building a complete industrial chain from agricultural product production to transportation and sales, successfully achieving the transformation from the primary industry to the secondary and tertiary industries.

Image Source: Youth Shuangliu

In addition to Huangshui Town, Huagang Town in Anzhou District of Mianyang is also a model of urban-rural integration.

In 2023, there were already 20,000 acres of land planted with citrus in Huagang Town and its surrounding areas, and the citrus output in the core area of Jiuhe Village reached over 200 million yuan, driving an average increase in income of more than 8,000 yuan per villager.

However, citrus is only a microcosm of Huagang Town's development.

In recent years, the Huagang Town Party Committee and government have innovatively integrated and established four "big party committees" in four districts: Modern Urban Core, Rural Revitalization Coordinated Development in Huachengguoxiang, Leisure and Sightseeing Agricultural Development in Honghuayuan, and Modern Agricultural Boutique, to activate regional advantageous resources, promote the integration and interaction of party building, industrial development, and social governance, thereby stimulating new vitality in industrial development and activating new potential for rural revitalization.

Image Source: Today's Anzhou

In 2023, the town launched over 100 construction projects, including over 30 agricultural, cultural, and tourism projects and supporting projects. The town's tourism revenue exceeded 3.8 billion yuan, and the collective economic income of the villages in the town exceeded 3.3 million yuan, an increase of 88% year-on-year!

The development of the township economy is a crucial step in promoting urban-rural integration development with counties as an important entry point. The inclusion of Huangshui Town and Huagang Town on the list further confirms the importance of urban-rural cooperation in promoting the development of new urbanization. This is the core of breaking the urban-rural dual structure, and it is also the key to promoting the modernization process of Sichuan as a whole and breaking the unbalanced regional development pattern.

02 Strong Industrial Towns: New Productive Forces Point the Way for Township Industrial Development

Industry is the backbone of the national economy.

Unlike resource-driven towns in Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, most of the "top 10" towns in Sichuan are strong industrial towns. For example, Sanhe Town in Jiangyou City, which has a strong old industrial background.

Inheriting from the industrial development of Jiangyou City, in recent years, Sanhe Town has taken traditional industries as its foundation and innovation and research as its core, closely focusing on the "2+1" industrial positioning, giving full play to the driving role of cogeneration circular economy, introducing high-quality projects such as special metallurgical materials, equipment manufacturing, and advanced structural components, continuously optimizing the industrial structure, and vigorously developing key industries such as high-performance composite materials, key electronic materials, and green energy-saving materials on the basis of consolidating the dominant position of special metallurgical materials and machinery manufacturing industries, fostering new momentum for innovative and high-quality development for local traditional industries.

Image Source: Jiangyou Release

In 2023, Sanhe Town had 105 above-scale industrial enterprises, achieving a total industrial output value of 32.1 billion yuan and a regional GDP of 17.5 billion yuan, accounting for one-quarter of Jiangyou's total GDP!

If Sanhe Town is a representative of traditional industrial innovative development, then the "Fucheng Two Towns" centered on Qingyi Town, known as the "strongest town in Sichuan," is an exemplar of "dual-wheel drive" for new industrialization with new productive forces.

Image Source: Fucheng News

Under the background of Mianyang taking "science and technology-based city" as the top priority of its "five-city strategy" and Fucheng District initiating the "science and education strong district" strategy, Qingyi Town, which boasts the core scientific research resource of Southwest University of Science and Technology, naturally lists technological innovation as the key to its development.

On the one hand, relying on Fucheng's "Science and Technology Corridor," Qingyi Town has attracted six scientific and technological innovation platforms such as the Academician Workstation of Southwest University of Science and Technology to successively settle in the West Science Digital Economy Innovation Center in Dengta Community, covering core areas of the digital economy such as big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 5G, and satellite remote sensing, providing support for the transformation of scientific research results.

Image Source: Mianyang Government Affairs

On the other hand, Qingyi Town has broken the traditional industrial layout, creating a "4+2" scientific and technological innovation industrial system, innovating a tripartite integrated platform model of "clustered development + business services + expert consultation," empowering industrial high-quality development with technology, and stimulating local high-quality development vitality with innovation.

Nowadays, Silicon-based Intelligence, which focuses on the AI digital human industry, is accelerating the global digital human market expansion in the small town north of Fucheng District; Sichuan's first SAR satellite, "Fucheng No. 1," has also opened the entrance to the "arrow, satellite, device, data" aerospace industry chain for the "Western Silicon Valley"; Hepao Ruixiang is also focusing on special environment robots, providing reliability and safety guarantees for nuclear technology applications...

Image Source: Sichuan Mianyang Industrial Park

Currently, the Fucheng "Science and Technology Corridor" extending from Qingyi Town has 18 provincial-level and above key laboratories, 8 provincial-level and above engineering technology research centers, 6 enterprise technology research centers, and 15 scientific research carriers, gathering a large number of top national innovation leaders such as Yonggui Technology, SpaceTycoon, and iFLYTEK. The scientific and technological innovation potential of Qingyi is continuously being released.

In addition to Qingyi Town, which is known as the "strongest town in Sichuan," the two-term "contestants" Yongxing Town in Fucheng District and Xiuwen Town in Dongpo District have also made the list again with their intelligent industries such as new displays and semiconductors, smart terminals, magnetic materials, as well as their advantageous industries such as new energy. New entrants such as Dayu Town in Shehong City and Xiaojian Town in Youxian District have also achieved considerable results in the fields of lithium battery new energy and aviation technology.

Obviously, Sichuan's strongest "town" cluster is continuously empowering local economic high-quality development based on technology and driving new productive forces.

03 Township Rise: Can It Become a Fulcrum for Leveraging the "Five Regions to Prosper Together"?

Under a large province, fame is difficult to live up to.

In mid-May, the communique of the fifth plenary session of the 12th CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee once again mentioned that "imbalanced and inadequate development remains the most significant provincial reality."

Since the "strong provincial capital" strategy was proposed, Chengdu's "one city dominates" has become a problem that has plagued Sichuan for many years. It is obviously unrealistic for one city to drive the province as a whole, thus giving birth to the "five regions to prosper together" strategy.

Image Source: Sichuan Department of Culture and Tourism

Looking at the top 10 towns in Sichuan, all of them are located in the "Chengdu Plain Economic Zone" centered on Chengdu: Mianyang, known as the "second city of Sichuan," tops the list with 6 towns; Suining closely follows with two towns under the "top 100 counties" of Shehong, ranking second; Chengdu and Meishan each occupy one seat, while the other four regions are not on the list. The "top 10 in Sichuan" is more like the "top 10 in Chengdu."

Therefore, the development of Sichuan's township economy may usher in two situations:

1. The townships in the Chengdu Plain "bloom," radiating the economies of the four regions through the rise of the central region, gradually breaking the unbalanced and inadequate development status within the province.

2. The "strong provincial capital" strategy is "reenacted" in the townships, creating a model for leading national township development with absolute development advantages. The most direct way is to build "billion-yuan towns."

The former is an ideal development outcome, while the latter also has a certain possibility.