Six county-level medium-sized cities will be built in Hubei, all three municipalities directly under the central government will be shortlisted, and Zhong Xiangyi will be unsuccessful.

China is comprehensively promoting various strategies to promote the balanced development of regional economy, such as the large-scale development of the western region and the revitalization of the northeast, which is to continuously narrow the economic gap between the east and the west and between the north and the south. The central region is located in the transitional zone between the southeast and northwest of China, which has an important location advantage for undertaking industrial ladder transfer and promoting the development of the western region.

The central region consists of six provinces, from Shanxi in the northernmost part to Hunan in the southernmost part and Anhui in the east, of which Hubei Province should be located in the middle of China. Hubei, known as the thoroughfare of nine provinces, is the transportation hub of east-west traffic and the intersection of north and south, so Hubei has always occupied an important position in the development pattern of China.

In recent years, Hubei's development focuses on Wuhan, Xiangyang and Yichang. Hubei Province's "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes to continue to firmly support Wuhan to become bigger and stronger, and at the same time continue to upgrade the energy levels of Xiangyang and Yichang.

What is the purpose of developing Hubei into a central city? Is it just to support individual cities to become bigger and stronger, and the rest of the cities remain unknown? Obviously not! The formulation of the 14 th Five-Year Plan in Hubei has changed from "one master and two assistants" to "one master and two wings". The essential difference is that the central city is bigger and needs to drive, lead and radiate the development of surrounding areas.

In the urban pattern of Hubei, the county level is also an important carrier, because counties are the largest number of cities. Although the county town is small in scale, it is the first stop to undertake the transfer of rural and township population to the city.

In the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" of Hubei, it is proposed to support 10 medium-sized cities and 56 small cities in addition to building 9 mega-cities and large cities. Prefecture-level cities can be between big cities and medium-sized cities, and county towns can also be between medium-sized cities and small cities, depending on their own strength.

Among the 10 medium-sized cities proposed by Hubei, except Ezhou, Xianning, Suizhou and Enshi, there are 6 counties and cities on the list, which we call county-level medium-sized cities. In fact, there is only one criterion for judging medium-sized cities, regardless of county level or prefecture level, that is, the urban population exceeds 500 thousand. Why should it be named as a county-level medium-sized city? Because this is not something that every county and city can do, it is one of the best, and only the county or county-level city that can compete with the city can do it.

The specific list of six county-level medium-sized cities supported by Hubei is Xiantao, Qianjiang, Tianmen, Daye, Zaoyang and Hanchuan.

Judging from the selected six counties and cities, they all have the following characteristics:

First, the total economic output is high, and it is the leader of Hubei county economy. In terms of GDP in 2020, the highest in Xiantao is 82.7 billion, and the lowest in Tianmen is 665.438+0.7 billion.

Second, the population base is large, and they are all populous counties in Hubei. According to the latest resident population, the population of Zaoyang City is 880,000, and that of Tianmen City is1150,000.

Let's analyze the differences between these counties and cities. Geographically, Xiantao, Qianjiang and Tianmen are three municipalities directly under the Central Government of Hubei Province, but they were all split from the former Jingzhou area in 1994.

Taking Xiantao as an example, it has long occupied the leading position in Hubei's county economy, and Xiantao is also a county and city lacking in state-owned enterprises and large industries, and has embarked on a road of county economic development in Zhejiang relying on private enterprises and township industries. Of course, Xiantao has another geographical advantage, that is, it is close to Wuhan. Hanchuan city also has this advantage.

Qianjiang is a city that started from the oil industry, but with the exhaustion of resources, the development of Qianjiang was once in trouble in the early years. But Qianjiang's innovative spirit, besides introducing new industries and changing industrial structure, is still worth learning from many counties and cities. Qianjiang has also built a well-known agricultural product brand "Qianjiang Crayfish" in Hubei, and made this industry one of the pillar industries of the city with the idea of network celebrities.

Tianmen has always been a city with a large population, and its industrial strength is slightly weaker than that of Xiantao Hehe. However, population advantage is the biggest development dividend, and the net outflow of Tianmen population is more serious in recent years. The resident population is not much ahead of Xiantao. How to retain the population is the key to build Tianmen into a medium-sized city.

Needless to say, Daye is a strong industrial city in Hubei. Daye tried to set up a district without success, but now Daye has actually started to develop with Huangshi Rongcheng.

Zaoyang belongs to Xiangyang and has always been a strong city in northern Hubei. Coupled with the population advantage, it has been supported by Hubei.

In fact, in the county economy of Hubei, there are two cities that have to be mentioned, namely Yichang and Jingmen.

Yichang is the sub-center of Hubei, and its economic aggregate is the third in the province. Yichang can achieve today's achievements, in addition to the drag effect of the Three Gorges Project, but also closely related to Yichang's county economy. Among the three counties and cities in the east of Yichang, Yidu's GDP is 64.3 billion, Zhijiang is 56.4 billion and Dangyang is 49.3 billion. In total, Yidu is one of the top ten counties and cities in Hubei and the top 100 cities in China. Why are Yidu not included in the list of medium-sized cities? The main reason is that Yidu's total population is not high, and its permanent population is less than 400,000. If it is all included in the urban area, it is impossible to build a medium-sized city.

Jingmen is also a strong industrial city in Hubei, and Zhongxiang, a subordinate county, is very strong. Last year, Zhongxiang's GDP was 52.6 billion, and the city's permanent population was nearly 870,000. Its strength is only slightly worse than Zaoyang. It's a pity that I didn't make the list of medium-sized cities.

These six selected cities will certainly be supported in urban construction and industrial development in the next step, and will also get greater development opportunities than other counties and cities, and will also make their own contributions to the urbanization process in Hubei.