Following the signing of agreements of Xinhui District with Taishan, Pengjiang District and Jianghai District with Enping, Heshan has also recently signed a pairing cooperation framework agreement with Kaiping. This marks the last jigsaw of the scheme cooperation between the eastern and western part of Jiangmen City, the so-called "Capital of Overseas Chinese". Jiangmen is well positioned for coordinated development of all its districts, opening a new chapter of unity, cooperation and common prosperity. △ ight view of Jiangmen City   by Li Jianqun
In order to address the problem of unbalanced and uncoordinated development between different districts, Jiangmen City has proposed a scheme for coordinating district development, designating a pilot area for balanced development, and promoting common prosperity between its eastern and west part. Based on this overall strategy and vision of coordinated development, Jiangmen continues to enhance the competitiveness of the city, improve the quality and efficiency of development, and move closer towards the goal common prosperity. The city is also seeking to contribute its wisdom and experience in addressing the problem unbalanced development in the Guangdong at large.
From the blueprint of coordinating the four county-level cities and three districts under the governance of Jiangmen and the "three-way pairing" for common prosperity, we can see Jiangmen’s commitment to joint development, sharing and mutual progress.
  △Natural scenery of Weidun in Gulao Waterside Residency, Heshan          by Ouyang Yong
Joint Development
Spanning over one sixth of land in the Greater Bay Area, Jiangmen is a huge "organic aggregate". In the past, the cities and districts in Jiangmen were preoccupied with their own development, with low degree of communication and weak sense of cooperation. In this regard, Jiangmen breaks the local barriers through pairing cooperation between eastern and western districts. The first step is to build a platform for joint development and mutual understanding.
The Xinhui-Taishan pair will jointly plan for large industrial clusters, with an industrial park selected as the pilot zone for the pairing cooperation. A balanced development fund with an initial investment of RMB 33 million will be established to fund a series of paired collaborative projects;
The Heshan-Kaiping pair will help promising enterprises from both places to form industrial alliances and cross district industrial chains and complementarity and mutually beneficial industrial partnerships;
  △World cultural heritage: Kaiping Diaolou and Villages    by Li Jianqun
The Pengjiang-Jianghai-Enping trio will introduce established incubation institutions to set up incubation carriers in Enping, to nurture technology-oriented micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises and high-tech enterprises; make use of diversified government service channels; establish and improve the working mechanism of remote collection and agency, and improve the efficiency of cross regional general service;
All these practices share the same “joint development mindset” - joint development of campuses, joint development of alliances, joint development of teams, joint development of funds... The goal is to break the local protection barriers and think beyond the gains and losses of “one city or one district”, so as to achieve “common gains” for a much larger community.
Jiangmen is cultivating a " joint development connection" for pairing and cooperation, making mutual cooperation concrete and yielding tangible results.
  △Huangmao Sea Bridge under construction
Sharing
If we follow the conventional development path, the gap between the western part and the eastern part of Jiangmen may be further widened.
The eastern part of Jiangmen opens the gate to the core cities of the Greater Bay Area. It is home to the Sino-Europe (Jiangmen) SME International Cooperation Zone and a “duo-carbon” laboratory built in accordance with the world-class stantards;
The western part occupies 70% of the Jiangmen’s land area, a national "two mountains" practice and innovation base, the province's only world cultural heritage Kaiping Diaolou and village, as well as five agricultural specialty produces, namely Magang goose, poultry egg, eel, tea leaf and rice.
For this purpose, Jiangmen is trying to break the information barrier through pairing cooperation between the eastern part and the western part. The second step is to create honest and transparent opportunities through sharing and enhance the connections between them.
Leveraging Pengjiang Industrial Park’s status as a "Guangdong Characteristic Industrial Park" among the province’s health food industry, the Pengjiang-Jianghai-Enping trio will is exploring the opportunities in “Pengjiang enterprises + Enping resources” model, to accelerate the development of green food processing industry in Enping;
The Xinhui-Taishan pair are jointly hosting investment attraction fairs at different cities in the region, and sharing investment resources in Shenzhen;
The Heshan-Kaiping pair is deepening the "alliance-style" assistance and innovative support work for rural areas such as the designating rural science and technology specialist, financial assistants and industrial technology consultants.
All three groups has proposed to establish a cross regional education group, allowing schools in the western part to access the quality education system of schools in the eastern part, and participate in the teaching and research activities of as part of the system.
All these practices share the same “sharing approach” - sharing of resources, talents, education and investment... The goals are directed towards scientifically planning of the development patterns, objective uation of the strengths of various districts, reasonably distributing industries according to these comparable strengths, and forming new industrial advantages, industrial chain ecosystem and new growth drivers for regional economy.
Jiangmen is cultivating a " sharing connection" for the eastern and western part, gathering all kinds of development factors, releasing the potential of the western part, and promoting the transformation of the resources into growth, so as to expand the "community" of pairing cooperation.
  △Xinhui Yinhuwan Seaside New Zone   by Mo Yongzhi
Mutual Progress
Decision makers of Jiangmen realized that to promote balanced regional development, we must help the backward runners catch up without hampering the momentum of the forerunners, so that they can support each other and achieve together. Such a virtuous circle can accelerate the realization of common prosperity, which is of great significance to building a new development pattern and promoting high-quality development.
They believe that all county-level cities and districts are indispensable parts of Jiangmen, and that we are “on the same boat”. In this regard, Jiangmen has broken down development barriers through pairing cooperation between its eastern part and western part. The third step is to start from “mutual progress”, and to reach goal through win-win cooperation and revolutionary friendship.
Memorandums of cooperation have been signed between the economic “locomotives” of the Xinhui-Taishan pair,  the Yinhuwan Seaside New Zone and Guangwan Economic Development Zone, Xinhui Industrial Park and Taishan Industrial New Town respectively to comprehensively promote exchanges and cooperation in industrial coordination, investment attraction engagement and interconnection;
The Pengjiang-Jianghai-Enping trio encourages Enping to use its own resources, assets and capitals to invest in industrial projects in Jianghai District by means of direct investment or investment in equity, financing, etc., explore cooperative industrial plant sharing projects, and drive the collective economic development of rural villages in Enping.
  △New Look of Enping
The Heshan-Kaiping pair are working together on a “one-route with multiple stations” cultural tour in the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area, strengthen external publicity and promotion activities leveraging its status of "Capital of Overseas Chinese ", and jointly building the city into a world-class tourism destination in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area.
All these contents share the same “mutual progress actions” - mutual progress in industry, projects, culture and tourism, and brand building... The goals are directed towards fortifying existing and current strengths, considering the greater picture and long-term development, exploring the possibilities in balanced development with a changing mindset, fully releasing all potentials, and accelerating the construction of a comprehensive pilot zone for regional balanced development.
Jiangmen is directing its county-level cities and districts to complement each other's advantages and develop in a balanced pattern by cultivating a “mutual progress connection” that is firm and far-reaching, so as to boost the spirit of pairing cooperation.
With the comprehensive implementation of paring cooperation between the eastern and the western parts of Jiangmen, the city will vigorously build a new patterns and new drivers with concerted thoughts, aligned objectives and synchronous action of the three county-level cities and four districts, so that Jiangmen can become a good example of regional balanced development will become an example of Guangdong in the near future!
(Author: Chen Haoguang & Li Jianqun)