At the beginning of the New Year, authorities released the data showing that the permanent residents in Zhengzhou have exceeded 10 million. Compared with the decline of permanent residents in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Zhengzhou, as a new first-tier city, has seen a significant net inflow of permanent residents year after year, which is particularly noteworthy.
Why does Zhengzhou’s population reach 10 million
Statistics show that in recent years, the permanent residents of Zhengzhou has maintained a growth rate of 1.2% to 1.6%. Why Zhengzhou could maintain a stable growth of the population? A person from Zhengzhou government told the reporter that it is because of Zhengzhou’s unique advantage of “location+hub”, as well as the capital of a province with a population of more than 100 million, and its rapid development in the past 40 years of reform and opening-up. Entering the new era, with the policy advantages of “three zones and one agglomeration” (Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone, China (He’nan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Zhengzhou-Luoyang-Xinxiang National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone, and Zhongyuan Urban Agglomeration) and national central city, Zhengzhou welcomed its new development opportunity with urban scale expansion, quality improvement and enhanced attractiveness. It is the new-type urbanization construction taking people as the core that has strongly promoted the rapid agglomeration of industries, talents and population in Zhengzhou, and accelerated the leap-forward development of the city. There are about 12 million migrant workers in the province, among which 4 million are in Zhengzhou. Those who used to work outside the province are "scrambling" to return to their hometowns to find jobs and start their own businesses, constantly injecting new vitality and vigor into Zhengzhou.
National central city construction enters a new stage
Experts believe that the more than 10 million permanent residents in Zhengzhou mark a milestone event in the development history of the city, indicating that Zhengzhou's development has stood on a new historical point to start a new journey towards a higher level city in the national and even global urban system.
Big city creates more opportunities. Zhengzhou, as a national central city, is accelerating the establishment of a modern industrial system supported by advanced manufacturing and dominated by modern service industries, and focusing on seven leading industries, including electronic information, automobile and equipment manufacturing, new materials, biology and medicine, aluminum and its deep processing, modern food manufacturing, household and brand clothing manufacturing, striving to create a new situation of high-quality development.
According to the National Central City Action Plan for Zhengzhou, the number of permanent residents in Zhengzhou will reach 11 million by 2020 and 13.5 million by 2035. Wang Jianguo, director and researcher of the Urban and Environment Research Institute, Henan Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that comprehensive measures should be taken to improve the economic and population primacy of Zhengzhou from population agglomeration, especially high-quality population and high-quality economic expansion, so as to further enhance the agglomeration effect and radiation driving capacity of Zhengzhou.