On January 24th,the Guiding Opinions on Fully Deepening Reform and Expanding Opening-up on Supporting Xiongan New District of Hebei Province was released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. From the public information, many of the contents of the Guidance Opinions exceeded expectations, not only proposed to gradually grant "provincial economic and social management authority of Xiongan New District", but also to support "the transfer of headquarters and branches of state-owned enterprises in Beijing to Xiongan New Area", at the same time having the requirements like supporting "universities in Beijing and secondary vocational schools with innovative characteristics to relocate to Xiongan New Area through overall relocation, branch-running and joint school-running".
Dubbed as a "significant strategic choice and a major national event for the millennium", Xiong'an New District has finally come up with an overall development plan after nearly two years of its official announcement. At the same time, it has received further policy support from the Central Committee and the State Council. This means that Xiong'an New District will enter the next step and accelerate its new phase of construction and development. For the high-profile events that the Chinese central government attaches so much importance to, it is necessary to have some stages of progress with visibility; one may also see some adjustments according to changes in the situation.
The construction of Xiong'an New District is a complicated project. From the mission it carries, Anbound's research team believes that its establishment can roughly be divided into two parts, "hard construction" and "soft construction". The so-called "hard construction" refers to the urban planning, urban construction, transportation construction, ecological construction, environmental construction and others of Xiong'an New District. These "hard construction" are mainly blueprints for overall spatial, functional and physical planning and forms. The so-called "soft construction" refers to various policy arrangements such as reform breakthroughs, policy mechanisms, management measures, and service systems required for the future development of Xiong'an New District. We believe that the hard and soft constructions will determine the success or failure of the future development of Xiong'an New District to a considerable extent.
The "hard construction" has larger investment scales and workloads, but it can be better understood and grasped. So long as the planning is scientific and the construction funds are sufficient, with China's current building capacity, it is believed that there is no problem in completing the established construction. From the previous discussions of experts and public opinion, there are two areas in the "hard construction" of Xiong'an New District that are prone to problems; the first is urban planning and urban design. Currently, the overall plan of Xiong'an has been approved by the state, but to see whether the city's detailed regulations are reasonable, it will have to be tested practically. The city and its specific architectural design are also crucial in the "hard construction" effect. The second is related to the environmental problems concerning flood control capacity, habitat environment conditions, resource and environmental carrying capacity, pollution control and ecological restoration. In this regard, systemic errors or defects should be avoided so as to prevent possible issues in the future.
"Hard construction" provides basic hardware conditions for Xiong'an New District, but the development of Xiong'an New District would require various elements to achieve the goals of what the central government expects, hence "soft construction" would be more important. From the perspective of the history of world urban development, there are many examples of "hard and soft constructions". There are cases where urban construction hardware is in place, but "soft construction" is not, especially the mechanical defects that eventually cause the city to be unattractive, and lack of vitality in the urban development. It should be noted that from the current information, the Xiong'an New District is not just about building a new city. The central government also hopes to build a national model to promote high-quality development and test more in-depth institutional reforms, including administration, in Xiong'an New District. Management, social development, and housing system reform are important reasons why the central government has given the Xiong'an New District a greater "reform autonomy."
Some scholars believe that Xiong'an New District is another Shenzhen in this new era of reform and opening-up, even surpassing Shenzhen at the development level; Anbound's researchers disagree with this. We have analyzed in the past that Xiong'an New District cannot achieve the status and influence of Shenzhen in terms of economy and industry. This is determined by the laws of the regional economy and the laws of the market economy; it would not be possible to create a Shenzhen by administrative means. However, from the perspective of social development and institutional reform, Xiong'an New District can fully inherit the spirit of reform in Shenzhen, make new reforms and breakthroughs in the new era of socialism with the same reform courage and reform, and deepen reforms for the country in the future. In this regard, the "soft construction" of Xiong'an New District is actually on designing future deepening reform plans and policy systems, considering the mechanism under which public services are provided, and achieving breakthroughs in urbanization and urban management. If the connotation and importance of "soft construction" are not well understood, it would be difficult to achieve the original intention of the central design of Xiong'an New District.
Final analysis conclusion:
There are "hard" and "soft" constructions of Xiong'an New District. "Hard construction" involving space, urban function and urban form; "soft construction" encompasses urban services, management and institutional reform; both should be emphasized. The core of "soft construction" is reform breakthrough and system construction, which is the key to injecting "soul" into the future of Xiong'an New District.
