Promoting Coordinated Regional Development Guided by Xi Jinping’s Economic Thought

Coordinated regional development is an inherent requirement of Chinese-path modernization. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has profoundly grasped the new features of China’s development stage and the new laws of regional economic evolution, planning coordinated regional development from the overall perspective of the Party and the state’s undertakings, and putting forward a series of new concepts, new ideas, and new strategies. Many of these important expositions are included in the first volume of *Selected Works of Xi Jinping on the Economy*. For example, “Ideas and Measures for Promoting Coordinated Regional Development under the New Situation” points out: “China’s economy is shifting from a phase of high-speed growth to a phase of high-quality development, which sets new requirements for coordinated regional development”; “Accelerating the Construction of a New Development Pattern and Striving to Promote High-Quality Development” points out: “Deeply implement the coordinated regional development strategy, the major regional strategies, the main functional zone strategy, and the new-type urbanization strategy, optimize the layout of major productive forces, and build a regional economic layout and a territorial space system featuring complementary advantages and high-quality development”; and so on. As an important component of Xi Jinping’s economic thought, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on coordinated regional development contain rich original contributions. They not only profoundly answer the epistemological question of “how to view” the promotion of coordinated regional development, but also provide fundamental guidance and a guide to action for the practical question of “how to do it” in promoting coordinated regional development. The “Proposal” of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC [1]1 Xi puts forward “optimizing the regional economic layout and promoting coordinated regional development” and makes strategic deployments. To implement the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee on coordinated regional development, we must take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping’s economic thought, as the guide, build a regional economic layout and a territorial space system featuring complementary advantages and high-quality development, and write a new chapter in coordinated regional development.

区域协调发展是中国式现代化的内在要求。党的十八大以来，习近平总书记深刻把握我国发展阶段性新特征和区域经济演进新规律，从党和国家事业全局高度谋划区域协调发展，提出一系列新理念新思想新战略，许多重要论述都收入《习近平经济文选》第一卷。比如，《新形势下促进区域协调发展的思路和举措》指出：“我国经济由高速增长阶段转向高质量发展阶段，对区域协调发展提出了新的要求”；《加快构建新发展格局，着力推动高质量发展》指出：“深入实施区域协调发展战略、区域重大战略、主体功能区战略、新型城镇化战略，优化重大生产力布局，构建优势互补、高质量发展的区域经济布局和国土空间体系”；等等。作为习近平经济思想的重要组成部分，习近平总书记关于区域协调发展的重要论述蕴含丰富的原创性贡献，不仅深刻回答了推动区域协调发展“怎么看”的认识论问题，更为推动区域协调发展“怎么办”的实践论问题提供了根本遵循和行动指南。党的二十届四中全会《建议》提出“优化区域经济布局，促进区域协调发展”并作出战略部署。贯彻落实党中央关于区域协调发展的重大决策部署，要以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想特别是习近平经济思想为指引，构建优势互补、高质量发展的区域经济布局和国土空间体系，谱写区域协调发展新篇章。

Elevating the promotion of coordinated regional development to the height of national governance for strategic planning

把推动区域协调发展提升到治国理政的高度进行战略擘画

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in “The Change in China’s Principal Contradiction Is a Historic Change Affecting the Overall Situation”: “The change in China’s principal social contradiction is a historic change affecting the overall situation, which puts forward many new requirements for the work of the Party and the state. On the basis of continuing to promote development, we must focus on solving the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development.” Since the New Era, as China’s principal social contradiction has undergone historic changes, the spatial structure of China’s economic development has undergone profound changes, with central cities and city clusters becoming the main spatial forms carrying development elements. General Secretary Xi Jinping accurately grasped the concentrated reflection of the change in China’s principal social contradiction in the spatial dimension, creatively took coordinated regional development as an important lever to solve the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development, personally planned, personally deployed, and personally promoted the implementation of major strategies such as the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, promoted the full-island customs closure operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and consistently promoted the implementation of strategies for the eastern region to take the lead in development, the rise of the central region, the large-scale development of the western region, and the comprehensive revitalization of the northeast, leading China’s coordinated regional development to achieve historic achievements.

习近平总书记在《我国社会主要矛盾的变化是关系全局的历史性变化》中指出：“我国社会主要矛盾的变化是关系全局的历史性变化，对党和国家工作提出了许多新要求。我们要在继续推动发展的基础上，着力解决好发展不平衡不充分问题”。新时代以来，随着我国社会主要矛盾发生历史性变化，我国经济发展的空间结构发生深刻变化，中心城市和城市群正在成为承载发展要素的主要空间形式。习近平总书记精准把握我国社会主要矛盾变化在空间维度的集中反映，创造性地将区域协调发展作为破解发展不平衡不充分问题的重要抓手，亲自谋划、亲自部署、亲自推动京津冀协同发展、长江经济带发展、粤港澳大湾区建设、长三角一体化发展、黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展等重大战略实施，推动海南自由贸易港全岛封关运行，一以贯之推进实施东部率先发展、中部崛起、西部大开发、东北全面振兴战略，引领我国区域协调发展取得历史性成就。

Guided by the new development philosophy, solving the problem of unbalanced development through coordinated regional development. The new development philosophy is the most important and main content of Xi Jinping’s economic thought, and coordinated development is an important component of the organic whole of the new development philosophy. Coordinated regional development, as the concentrated embodiment of the coordinated development concept in the territorial space dimension, directly determines whether the new development philosophy can truly take root and whether the quality of development can meet the standards, and it is internally connected and mutually supportive with the other four major development concepts. Without effective coordination between regions, it is difficult for innovation elements to achieve cross-regional optimal allocation, for green transformation to form cross-regional ecological barriers and collaborative governance, for the foundation of a unified national market required by high-level opening up to be stable, and for development achievements to truly benefit all regions and all the people. Therefore, promoting coordinated regional development is not only a direct manifestation of practicing the coordinated development concept, but also the spatial prerequisite and operational foundation for systematically unfolding and synergistically advancing development in the vast territorial space, where innovation becomes the primary driving force, coordination becomes an endogenous characteristic, green becomes a universal form, opening up becomes a necessary path, and sharing becomes the fundamental purpose. Promoting coordinated regional development guided by the new development philosophy marks that our Party’s understanding of the laws of socialist modernization and the complexity of spatial governance has reached a new height.

以新发展理念为指引，通过区域协调发展破解发展失衡难题。新发展理念是习近平经济思想最重要、最主要的内容，协调发展是新发展理念这一有机整体的重要组成部分。区域协调发展作为协调发展理念在国土空间维度的集中体现，其成效直接关乎新发展理念能否真正落地、发展质量能否达标，并与其他四大发展理念内在贯通、相互支撑。缺乏区域之间的有效协调，创新要素就难以实现跨区域的优化配置，绿色转型就难以形成跨区域的生态屏障与协同治理，高水平对外开放所要求的全国统一大市场根基就难以稳固，发展成果也难以真正惠及所有区域和全体人民。因此，推进区域协调发展，不仅是践行协调发展理念的直接体现，更是使创新成为第一动力、协调成为内生特点、绿色成为普遍形态、开放成为必由之路、共享成为根本目的的发展在广袤国土空间系统展开、协同推进的空间前提与运行基础。以新发展理念为引领推动区域协调发展，标志着我们党对社会主义现代化建设规律和空间治理复杂性的认识达到了新高度。

Anchoring the strategic needs of the new development pattern, optimizing the spatial layout of the economy and smoothing the national economic cycle through coordinated regional development. Implementing the new development philosophy in the new development stage inevitably requires building a new development pattern. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in “On Building a New Development Pattern”: “All regions should identify their positions and comparative advantages in the domestic great circulation and the domestic-international dual circulation, and organically link the construction of a new development pattern with the implementation of major regional strategies, the coordinated regional development strategy, the main functional zone strategy, and the construction of pilot free trade zones”; in “Accelerating the Construction of a New Development Pattern and Grasping the Initiative for Future Development”, he pointed out: “Prevent all localities from engaging in self-made small circulations, break down regional barriers, and truly form a unified national market.” The key to building a new development pattern lies in the smooth and unimpeded economic cycle, requiring the removal of blockages in the links of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption. Currently, regional barriers and market segmentation are major obstacles to building a new development pattern. The “Proposal” of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC proposes to eliminate local protection and market segmentation and comprehensively rectify “involution-style” competition [2]2 “Involution-style” competition (内卷式竞争) refers to excessive, zero-sum competition among local governments or enterprises that leads to diminishing returns and waste of resources, often through subsidies, protectionism, or redundant investment.. Coordinated regional development can provide an organizational foundation and operational guarantee for accelerating the construction of a new development pattern. Promoting a higher level of coordinated regional development, eliminating hidden barriers in factor acquisition and qualification recognition, and regulating the economic promotion behaviors of local governments can effectively leverage the advantages of the domestic super-large market, and enhance the overall efficiency, circulation efficiency, and resilience of the national economic system. Placing coordinated regional development in an important supporting position for building a new development pattern marks a shift in its strategic function from relatively focusing on integrating local regions into the economic cycle to paying more attention to serving the overall operation of the national economy and cultivating endogenous driving forces for development. It is an important cornerstone for ensuring the stable and long-term progress of Chinese-path modernization.

锚定新发展格局的战略需求，通过区域协调发展优化经济空间布局、畅通国民经济循环。在新发展阶段贯彻新发展理念，必然要求构建新发展格局。习近平总书记在《关于构建新发展格局》中指出：“各地区要找准自己在国内大循环和国内国际双循环中的位置和比较优势，把构建新发展格局同实施区域重大战略、区域协调发展战略、主体功能区战略、建设自由贸易试验区等有机衔接起来”；在《加快构建新发展格局，把握未来发展主动权》中指出：“防止各地搞自我小循环，打消区域壁垒，真正形成全国统一大市场”。构建新发展格局的关键在于经济循环的畅通无阻，要求打破生产、分配、流通、消费各环节的堵点。当前，区域壁垒和市场分割是构建新发展格局的一大梗阻。党的二十届四中全会《建议》提出，破除地方保护和市场分割、综合整治“内卷式”竞争等。区域协调发展能够为加快构建新发展格局提供组织基础和运行保障。推动实现更高水平的区域协调发展，消除要素获取、资质认定等方面的隐性壁垒，规范地方政府经济促进行为，能够有效发挥国内超大规模市场优势，提升国民经济体系的整体效能、循环效率和韧性水平。将区域协调发展置于构建新发展格局的重要支撑位置，标志着其战略功能从过去相对侧重于局部区域融入经济循环转向更加注重服务国家经济整体运行和培育发展内生动力，是保障中国式现代化建设行稳致远的重要基石。

Focusing on the theme of high-quality development, promoting the transformation of the development mode and cultivating new quality productive forces through coordinated regional development. Promoting high-quality development is the theme of economic and social development during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period [3]3 The “15th Five-Year Plan” (2026–2030) is China’s next five-year national economic and social development plan, succeeding the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025)., and coordinated regional development is an inherent requirement of high-quality development. The overall high-quality development of a country inevitably requires the general improvement of the development level and quality of all regions. Any “short board” in a region’s development, such as extensive development mode, lagging innovation capacity, and fragile ecological environment, will constrain the improvement of the overall quality of national development. At the same time, high-quality development is not uniform development; it encourages different regions to adapt measures to local conditions and take characteristic development paths. For example, promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt guided by “jointly focusing on large-scale protection, not engaging in large-scale development” is a powerful practice of exploring the path of modernization featuring harmonious coexistence between humans and nature under the theme of high-quality development. Currently, we are promoting high-quality development with the development of new quality productive forces as an important focus. Promoting coordinated regional development, by optimizing the allocation of spatial resources and guiding all localities to develop new quality productive forces according to their resource endowments and industrial foundations while avoiding low-level redundant construction, can optimize the layout of major productive forces and promote efficient collaboration between regional innovation chains and industrial chains, thereby enhancing the overall quality, structural resilience, and sustainability of national development. Closely focusing on the theme of high-quality development, cultivating and shaping new drivers and new advantages for economic development in promoting coordinated regional development will push regional development into a new stage that pays more attention to connotative improvement.

聚焦高质量发展这个主题，通过区域协调发展推动发展方式转型、培育新质生产力。推动高质量发展是“十五五”时期经济社会发展的主题，区域协调发展是高质量发展的内在要求。一个国家整体的高质量发展，必然要求各区域发展水平和质量普遍提升。任何区域在发展中存在的“短板”，如发展方式粗放、创新能力滞后、生态环境脆弱等，都会制约国家发展整体质量的提高。同时，高质量发展并非整齐划一的发展，而是要鼓励不同区域因地制宜、走出特色化发展路径。比如，以“共抓大保护、不搞大开发”为导向推动长江经济带发展，正是在高质量发展这个主题下探索人与自然和谐共生现代化路径的有力实践。当前，我们正在以发展新质生产力为重要着力点推动高质量发展。推动区域协调发展，通过优化空间资源配置、引导各地依据资源禀赋和产业基础因地制宜发展新质生产力，避免低水平重复建设，能够优化重大生产力布局、促进区域创新链产业链高效协作，进而提升国家发展整体质量、结构韧性与可持续性。紧紧围绕高质量发展这个主题，在推动区域协调发展中培育塑造经济发展新动能新优势，将推动区域发展进入更加注重内涵式提升的新阶段。

Closely adhering to the value goal of common prosperity, we promote the sharing of development achievements through coordinated regional development and steadily advance toward common prosperity for all the people. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Common prosperity for all the people is the essential feature of Chinese-path modernization, and coordinated regional development is the inevitable requirement for achieving common prosperity.” Implementing the new development philosophy, building a new development pattern, and promoting high-quality development must ultimately be grounded in achieving common prosperity for all the people. To achieve common prosperity, it is necessary to give equal weight to making the “cake” bigger and dividing the “cake” well. On the one hand, we must support major economic provinces in shouldering the heavy burden, taking the lead and setting examples in advancing Chinese-path modernization, and playing their role as power sources for high-quality development; on the other hand, we must increase differentiated policy support for old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas, and the like. It should be recognized that promoting coordinated regional development is not simply about promoting balanced economic development among regions, but rather about focusing on building a more fair and reasonable regional development order. By promoting the optimal allocation of production factors, advancing the equalization of basic public services, improving inter-regional interest compensation and assistance mechanisms, and strengthening inclusive, basic, and safety-net livelihood construction, we lay a solid foundation for different regions and different groups to gradually move toward common prosperity. Establishing coordinated regional development as an inevitable requirement for achieving common prosperity is an innovative practical exploration of the Marxist idea of gradually eliminating regional disparities. It profoundly embodies the people-centered development thought and centrally demonstrates our Party’s firm determination to promote social fairness and justice and to unite and lead all the people in creating a better life.

紧扣共同富裕的价值目标，通过区域协调发展促进发展成果共享、扎实迈向全体人民共同富裕。习近平总书记指出：“全体人民共同富裕是中国式现代化的本质特征，区域协调发展是实现共同富裕的必然要求。”贯彻新发展理念、构建新发展格局、推动高质量发展，最终都要落脚到实现全体人民共同富裕上。实现共同富裕，需要做大“蛋糕”与分好“蛋糕”并重。一方面，要支持经济大省挑大梁，在推进中国式现代化中走在前、作示范，发挥其作为高质量发展动力源的作用；另一方面，要加大对革命老区、民族地区、边疆地区等的差异化政策支持力度。应当认识到，推动区域协调发展并非简单促进区域之间在经济上平衡发展，而是注重构建更为公平合理的区域发展秩序。通过促进生产要素优化配置、推动基本公共服务均等化、健全区域间利益补偿和帮扶机制、加强普惠性基础性兜底性民生建设等，为不同区域、不同群体逐步走向共同富裕奠定坚实基础。将区域协调发展确立为实现共同富裕的必然要求，是对马克思主义关于逐步消灭区域差别思想的创新性实践探索，深刻体现了以人民为中心的发展思想，集中彰显了我们党致力于促进社会公平正义、团结带领全体人民创造美好生活的坚定决心。

Profoundly Revealing the Inherent Laws of Coordinated Regional Development

深刻揭示区域协调发展的内在规律

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, guided by Xi Jinping’s Economic Thought, major regional strategies and the coordinated regional development strategy have been advanced in depth. The three major economic engines of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Yangtze River Delta have continued to exert force, the balance among the four major sectors [4] has steadily strengthened, and the level of marine economic development has significantly improved. Looking at the data, from 2020 to 2024, the ratio of per capita gross regional product between the eastern and western regions fell from 1.68:1 to 1.65:1. Looking at the trend, the share of the central and western regions in the national economic aggregate has stabilized at over 40% in recent years, with economic growth rates faster than the national average; with the in-depth advancement of high-quality Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, the central and western regions, especially the western region, are transforming from being the open backwaters of the past to the forefront, demonstrating strong open vitality. Each region finds its positioning and leverages its strengths, with east-west mutual assistance, north-south coordination, and land-sea coordination, injecting surging momentum into Chinese-path modernization.

“十四五”时期，在习近平经济思想指引下，区域重大战略和区域协调发展战略纵深推进，京津冀、粤港澳大湾区、长三角三大经济引擎持续发力，四大板块发展均衡性稳步增强，海洋经济发展水平明显提升。从数据看，2020—2024年，东部与西部人均地区生产总值之比从1.68∶1下降到1.65∶1。从态势看，中西部地区经济总量占全国比重近年来稳定在四成以上，经济增速快于全国平均水平；随着高质量共建“一带一路”深入推进，中西部特别是西部地区正从昔日的开放末梢走向前沿，展现出强劲的开放活力。各地区找准定位、各展所长，东西互济、南北协同、陆海统筹，为中国式现代化注入澎湃动力。

An important reason why China’s coordinated regional development has been able to achieve historic accomplishments lies in firmly grasping the inherent laws of coordinated regional development. In “Deeply Understanding the New Development Philosophy and Advancing Supply-Side Structural Reform,” General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Coordination is the unity of development balance and imbalance; moving from balance to imbalance and then to a new balance is the basic law of the development of things”; in “Ideas and Measures for Promoting Coordinated Regional Development under the New Situation,” he pointed out: “Imbalance is universal; relative balance must be promoted in development. This is the dialectics of coordinated regional development.” General Secretary Xi Jinping adheres to and applies the Marxist stance, viewpoint, and method, focusing on the prominent contradictions in regional development in the New Era, systematically elaborating on and scientifically coordinating a series of important relationships that affect the overall situation of coordinated regional development, such as between humans and nature, efficiency and fairness, the whole and the part, and leveraging strengths and making up for weaknesses, profoundly revealing the inherent laws of coordinated regional development.

我国区域协调发展之所以能够取得历史性成就，一个重要原因就在于牢牢把握了区域协调发展的内在规律。习近平总书记在《深入理解新发展理念，推进供给侧结构性改革》中指出：“协调是发展平衡和不平衡的统一，由平衡到不平衡再到新的平衡是事物发展的基本规律”；在《新形势下促进区域协调发展的思路和举措》中指出：“不平衡是普遍的，要在发展中促进相对平衡。这是区域协调发展的辩证法”。习近平总书记坚持和运用马克思主义立场观点方法，聚焦新时代区域发展中的突出矛盾，系统阐释并科学统筹人与自然、效率与公平、整体与局部、扬长与补短等一系列关乎区域协调发展全局的重要关系，深刻揭示了区域协调发展的内在规律。

Scientifically coordinating the relationship between humans and nature has clarified the practical principles of economic development and ecological protection. In “How to View and How to Implement the New Normal,” General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “We must not only promote the balance of economy and population between regions and narrow the gap in per capita GDP between regions, but also promote the compatibility of regional population, economy, and resource and environmental carrying capacity, narrowing the gap between population, economy, and resource and environment.” Traditionally, measuring whether development between regions is coordinated and balanced often focuses on total economic output or per capita economic indicators. However, it should be recognized that regions are not isolated economic units, but a community of life where people, economic activities, and the natural environment interact and are interdependent. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important exposition elevates coordinated regional development from a single economic dimension to the height of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, transcending the previous one-sided development views of “anthropocentrism” or “emphasizing development over protection,” emphasizing the firm establishment and practice of the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and taking the carrying capacity of resources and the environment as the prerequisite and foundation. At the same time, it adheres to land-sea coordination, taking the ocean as a strategic location for high-quality development. Integrating the concept of ecological civilization into coordinated regional development requires not only, based on the main functional area strategy, constructing a spatial pattern with intensive and efficient production space, livable and moderate living space, and beautiful and clear ecological space, but also expanding the blue economic space, strengthening comprehensive coastal zone management and marine ecological protection, promoting the smooth flow of land and sea resource elements, and building a new regional development pattern of land-sea coordination and human-sea harmony.

科学统筹人与自然的关系，明确了经济发展与生态保护的实践原则。习近平总书记在《对新常态怎么看，新常态怎么干》中指出：“既要促进地区间经济和人口均衡，缩小地区间人均国内生产总值差距，也要促进地区间人口经济和资源环境承载能力相适应，缩小人口经济和资源环境间的差距。”传统上，衡量区域之间的发展是否协调平衡，往往关注经济总量或人均经济指标。但应看到，区域并非孤立的经济单元，而是人、经济活动与自然环境相互作用、相互依存的生命共同体。习近平总书记的重要论述将区域协调发展从单一经济维度提升至人与自然和谐共生的高度，超越了以往的“人类中心主义”或“重开发、轻保护”的片面发展观，强调牢固树立和践行绿水青山就是金山银山理念，把资源环境承载力作为前提和基础。同时，坚持陆海统筹，将海洋作为高质量发展的战略要地。将生态文明理念融入区域协调发展，既要依据主体功能区战略，构建生产空间集约高效、生活空间宜居适度、生态空间山清水秀的空间格局，也要拓展蓝色经济空间，加强海岸带综合管理和海洋生态保护，推动陆海资源要素顺畅流动，构建陆海协调、人海和谐的区域发展新格局。

Correctly handling the relationship between efficiency and fairness, focusing on promoting relative balance in dynamic development. How to dialectically view and correctly handle the contradiction between efficiency and fairness arising from unbalanced regional development is a key issue in promoting coordinated regional development. In “Deeply Understanding the New Development Philosophy and Advancing Supply-Side Structural Reform,” General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Emphasizing coordinated development does not mean egalitarianism, but rather paying more attention to equal opportunities for development and more attention to balanced allocation of resources.” This provides scientific guidance for handling the issue of regional development gaps under the conditions of the socialist market economy, requiring a dynamic, developmental, and interconnected view of regional development gaps, correctly handling the relationship between efficiency and fairness on the basis of respecting laws, and promoting relative balance in development. On the one hand, it acknowledges and utilizes the development momentum contained in “imbalance,” supports major economic provinces in shouldering the heavy burden, allows and encourages regions with conditions to leverage their comparative advantages to develop first, forming growth poles and power sources that radiate and drive high-quality development of the overall situation; on the other hand, through national macro-control and institutional arrangements, such as fiscal transfer payments, paired assistance, and equalization of basic public services, it actively regulates “imbalance,” guarantees the basic livelihood and development opportunities of underdeveloped regions, and steadily and solidly moves toward common prosperity in high-quality development. This dialectical thinking and policy orientation, which both faces up to gaps and stimulates vitality, and actively regulates and promotes fairness, is a profound answer and theoretical sublimation of the major issue of handling the relationship between efficiency and fairness under the conditions of the socialist market economy.

正确处理效率与公平的关系，注重在动态发展中促进相对平衡。如何辩证看待和正确处理区域发展不平衡产生的效率与公平之间的矛盾，是促进区域协调发展的一个重点问题。习近平总书记在《深入理解新发展理念，推进供给侧结构性改革》中指出：“强调协调发展不是搞平均主义，而是更注重发展机会公平、更注重资源配置均衡。”这为在社会主义市场经济条件下处理区域发展差距问题提供了科学指引，要求动态地、发展地、联系地看待区域发展差距，在尊重规律的基础上正确处理效率与公平的关系，在发展中促进相对平衡。一方面，承认并利用“不平衡”所蕴含的发展动能，支持经济大省挑大梁，允许和鼓励有条件的地区发挥比较优势率先发展，形成辐射带动全局高质量发展的增长极和动力源；另一方面，通过国家宏观调控和制度安排，如财政转移支付、对口帮扶、基本公共服务均等化等，积极主动调节“不平衡”，保障欠发达地区的基本民生和发展机会，在高质量发展中扎实稳步迈向共同富裕。这种既正视差距、激发活力，又主动调控、促进公平的辩证思维和政策导向，是对社会主义市场经济条件下处理好效率与公平关系这一重大课题的深刻解答和理论升华。

Correctly handling the relationship between the whole and the part, establishing the thinking of the whole country as a single chessboard

正确处理整体与局部的关系，树立全国一盘棋思想。习近平总书记反复强调坚持全国一盘棋，要求处理好局部和全局、当前和长远、重点和非重点的关系。党的二十届四中全会《建议》提出“促进区域联动发展”，进一步深化了对坚持全国一盘棋的认识，将拓展我国经济发展的战略纵深。坚持全国一盘棋，既要求在顶层设计和战略实施中充分尊重区域发展的客观差异性和地方实践的创造性，也要求各地区将自身发展置于国家发展大局中考量和定位。在实践中，构建多层次、立体化的区域联动新格局，发挥跨区域跨流域大通道建设的基础支撑作用，强化不同区域之间基础设施互联互通，拉近不同区域的时空距离；发挥重点城市群的载体依托作用，推动京津冀、长三角、粤港澳大湾区等重点城市群产业链创新链深度融合；支持处于战略交汇地带的跨区域联结型地区打破行政壁垒，发挥枢纽节点作用，探索“飞地经济”等新模式。通过正确处理整体与局部的关系、加强区域联动，将全国一盘棋走活、走实。

Grasp the methodology of leveraging strengths and addressing weaknesses, and promote the coordinated advancement of advantageous regions and disadvantaged regions. The resource endowments of China’s various regions are vastly different, their development foundations are not the same, their functional orientations each have their own emphases, and the coexistence of advantageous strengths and weak shortcomings is a basic national condition. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “All regions must combine actual conditions, adapt measures to local conditions, leverage strengths and address weaknesses, and blaze a path of high-quality development suited to the actual conditions of the region.” [1]1 Xi “Leveraging strengths” means to fully bring into play the comparative advantages of each region, promote the rational flow and efficient concentration of various factors, and enable regions with good resource endowments, strong innovation capabilities, and superior locational conditions to take the lead in making breakthroughs, becoming stronger and better, and accelerate the creation of growth poles and power sources for high-quality development; “addressing weaknesses” means to soberly recognize and strive to overcome weak links in development, and continuously increase support for special types of regions such as old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas, and ecologically fragile areas. In particular, it is necessary to solidly advance the construction of border towns, treating them as key “weaknesses” related to national security and people’s well-being that must be addressed and strengthened, persist in combining the revitalization of border areas and the enrichment of their people with the stabilization and consolidation of border areas, and promote social fairness, justice, and national security. Promoting coordinated regional development requires abandoning the “one-size-fits-all” approach, implementing differentiated and targeted regional policies, and promoting each region to blaze a path of high-quality development suited to its actual conditions by adapting measures to local conditions.

把握扬长与补短方法论，推动优势区域和短板区域协同并进。我国各区域资源禀赋千差万别，发展基础不尽相同，功能定位各有侧重，优势长板与短板弱项并存是基本国情。习近平总书记指出：“各地区要结合实际情况，因地制宜、扬长补短，走出适合本地区实际的高质量发展之路。”“扬长”就是要充分发挥各地区比较优势，促进各类要素合理流动和高效集聚，让资源禀赋好、创新能力强、区位条件优越的地区能够率先突破、做优做强，加快打造高质量发展的增长极和动力源；“补短”就是要清醒认识并着力克服发展中的薄弱环节，持续加大对革命老区、民族地区、边疆地区、生态脆弱地区等特殊类型区域的支持力度。特别是要扎实推进边境城镇建设，将其作为关乎国家安全与民生福祉的关键“短板”来补齐补强，坚持兴边富民和稳边固边相结合，促进社会公平正义与国家安全。推动区域协调发展，要求摒弃“一刀切”的做法，实施差异化、精准化的区域政策，促进各地区因地制宜走出符合本地区实际的高质量发展之路。

Guide the practice of coordinated regional development to proceed steadily and far-reachingly with Xi Jinping’s Economic Thought

以习近平经济思想指引区域协调发展实践行稳致远

Achieving coordinated regional development is a long-term historical process and a complex systemic project. While recognizing the historic achievements in China’s coordinated regional development since the New Era, [2]2 “Involution-style” competition (内卷式竞争) refers to excessive, zero-sum competition among local governments or enterprises that leads to diminishing returns and waste of resources, often through subsidies, protectionism, or redundant investment. it is also necessary to soberly recognize that the problem of unbalanced and inadequate regional development still exists, and that promoting coordinated regional development still faces many difficulties and challenges. For example, there are relatively large differences in natural resource endowments and economic development foundations among different regions, making it impossible for economic development to “march in lockstep”; different regions bear different functional orientations in the overall national development landscape, and cannot be judged solely by economic indicators; and so on. The “Decision” of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party [3]3 The “15th Five-Year Plan” (2026–2030) is China’s next five-year national economic and social development plan, succeeding the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025). made important arrangements for “improving the mechanism for implementing the coordinated regional development strategy,” and the “Proposal” of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party [4] made further important arrangements for promoting coordinated regional development, including both the continuation, deepening, and concretization of already-deployed reform tasks, as well as new tasks and measures proposed in response to new situations and new requirements. To implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, it is necessary to take Xi Jinping’s Economic Thought as the guide, focus on building a regional economic layout and territorial space system with complementary advantages and high-quality development, further deepen reforms comprehensively, and continuously shape new patterns and new advantages in China’s regional development.

实现区域协调发展是一个长期的历史过程和复杂的系统工程。在看到新时代以来我国区域协调发展取得历史性成就的同时，也要清醒认识到，区域发展不平衡不充分的问题依然存在，推进区域协调发展还面临不少困难和挑战。比如，不同地区的自然资源禀赋、经济发展基础等存在较大差异，经济发展不可能“齐步走”；不同地区在国家发展全局中承担的功能定位不同，不能单一以经济指标作为标准；等等。党的二十届三中全会《决定》对“完善实施区域协调发展战略机制”作出重要部署，党的二十届四中全会《建议》对促进区域协调发展作出进一步重要部署，既有对已部署改革任务的延续、深化、具体化，也有根据新形势新要求提出的新的任务举措。把党中央决策部署落到实处，要以习近平经济思想为指引，围绕构建优势互补、高质量发展的区域经济布局和国土空间体系进一步全面深化改革，不断塑造我国区域发展新格局新优势。

Orderly promote interconnected regional development. To promote coordinated regional development on the new journey of the New Era, it is necessary to uphold and strengthen the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee over coordinated regional development, fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the overall thinking of our Party in promoting coordinated regional development under the new circumstances, leverage the synergistic effects of the coordinated regional development strategy, major regional strategies, the main functional area strategy, and the new-type urbanization strategy, and promote interconnected regional development. In practice, it is necessary to increase the intensity of implementation, both promoting the deep integration and functional complementarity of various strategies and resolutely overcoming the tendency toward fragmentation in strategy implementation. At the same time, leverage the supporting and driving role of cross-regional connecting areas, deepen cross-administrative-region cooperation, and expand the river basin economic model; strengthen planning implementation monitoring, evaluation, and supervision to ensure the precise transmission and effective implementation of the strategic intentions of the Party Central Committee, truly achieving a view of the overall situation, planning for the long term, and laying out the big picture, so that the overall effectiveness of national strategies is maximized, forming a strong synergy to promote coordinated regional development.

有序促进区域联动发展。新时代新征程推动区域协调发展，必须坚持和加强党中央对区域协调发展的集中统一领导，完整、准确、全面贯彻落实我们党在新形势下促进区域协调发展的总的思路，发挥区域协调发展战略、区域重大战略、主体功能区战略、新型城镇化战略叠加效应，促进区域联动发展。在实践中，要加大实施力度，既推动各战略深度融合、功能互补，又坚决克服战略执行碎片化倾向。同时，发挥跨区域联结型地区的支撑带动作用，深化跨行政区合作，拓展流域经济模式；强化规划实施监测评估和监督，确保党中央战略意图精准传导、有效落地，真正做到观全局、谋长远、布大局，使国家战略的整体效能得到最大程度发挥，形成推动区域协调发展的强大合力。

Promote relative balance in dynamic development, and take the path of rational division of labor and optimized development. Based on the actual conditions of China’s regional development, firmly grasp dialectical thinking methods, guide each region to follow a path of differentiated, distinctive, and intensive development according to its own main functional orientation and resource and environmental carrying capacity, in order to continuously improve the quality of coordinated regional development. To this end, it is necessary to optimize the layout of major productive forces, promote efficient collaboration between regional innovation chains and industrial chains, and encourage all regions to develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions. [5] In practice, adhere to the path of rational division of labor and optimized development, support advantageous regions with the necessary conditions to enhance their innovation source capabilities and radiation-driven functions, and build the Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei), Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta), and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area international science and technology innovation centers; increase differentiated policy support, and through more precise and effective fiscal transfer payments, regional assistance, industrial collaboration, and other means, promote the revitalization and development of old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas, and so on. At the same time, promote the dynamic matching of industrial structure, population distribution, and resource and environmental carrying capacity, and run the concept of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature through the entire process of regional development.

在动态发展中促进相对平衡，走合理分工、优化发展的路子。立足我国区域发展实际，牢牢把握辩证思维方法，引导各地依据自身的主体功能定位和资源环境承载能力，走差异化、特色化、集约化发展之路，才能不断提高区域协调发展质量。为此，要优化重大生产力布局，促进区域创新链产业链高效协作，鼓励各地因地制宜发展新质生产力。在实践中，坚持走合理分工、优化发展的路子，支持具备条件的优势区域增强创新策源能力和辐射带动功能，建设北京（京津冀）、上海（长三角）、粤港澳大湾区国际科技创新中心；加大差异化政策支持力度，通过更加精准有效的财政转移支付、区域帮扶、产业协作等方式，促进革命老区、民族地区、边疆地区等振兴发展。同时，推动产业结构、人口分布与资源环境承载能力动态匹配，将人与自然和谐共生的理念贯穿于区域发展全过程。

Promote the free flow and efficient allocation of factors, injecting lasting momentum into coordinated regional development. Coordinated regional development is an important means of achieving spatial integration and a strong support for accelerating the construction of a unified national market. Promoting the free flow and efficient allocation of factors is both an inherent requirement of promoting coordinated regional development and an internal requirement for smoothing the domestic great circulation and building a unified national market. In practice, it is necessary to improve systems for factor acquisition, qualification recognition, bidding, and so on, resolutely break down various explicit and implicit barriers that hinder the cross-regional free flow, fair competition, and efficient allocation of production factors such as labor, capital, technology, and data, and eliminate market segmentation; continuously create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized first-class business environment, deeply rectify “involution-style” competition, [6] and promote the smooth flow and optimized combination of advanced production factors toward regions and industries with higher efficiency and better returns, thereby enhancing the efficiency of resource factor allocation on a larger scale and at a deeper level. At the same time, adhere to the connotative development of cities, build innovative cities full of vitality, and enhance the ability of some megacities to allocate global high-end production factors.

促进要素自由流动高效配置，为区域协调发展注入持久动力。区域协调发展是实现空间一体化的重要手段，是加快建设全国统一大市场的有力支撑。促进要素自由流动高效配置，既是促进区域协调发展的题中应有之义，也是畅通国内大循环、建设全国统一大市场的内在要求。在实践中，要完善要素获取、资质认定、招标投标等制度，坚决破除阻碍劳动、资本、技术、数据等生产要素跨区域自由流动、公平竞争、高效配置的各种显性与隐性壁垒，消除市场分割；持续打造市场化、法治化、国际化一流营商环境，深入整治“内卷式”竞争，促进先进生产要素向效率更高、回报更优的区域和产业顺畅流动、优化组合，从而在更大范围、更深层次提升资源要素配置效率。同时，坚持城市内涵式发展，建设富有活力的创新型城市，增强部分超大城市对全球高端生产要素的配置能力。

Continuously advance institutional and mechanism innovation, providing a solid and long-term guarantee for coordinated regional development. Looking to the future, it is necessary to place institutional construction in a more prominent position to provide institutional and mechanism guarantees for coordinated regional development. To this end, it is necessary to improve the statistical, fiscal and tax, and assessment systems conducive to the construction of a unified large market, and promote the establishment and practice of a correct outlook on political performance; [7] optimize the sharing of benefits between enterprise headquarters and branches, and between production sites and consumption sites, and improve mechanisms for inter-regional planning coordination, industrial collaboration, and benefit sharing; deeply advance people-centered new-type urbanization, and implement a system for providing basic public services based on household registration at the place of habitual residence; deepen land system reform, granting provincial-level governments greater autonomy in coordinating construction land; improve diversified ecological compensation mechanisms, expand channels for realizing the value of ecological products according to local conditions, and in particular improve horizontal ecological protection compensation mechanisms, putting into practice the principle that protectors benefit and users pay; and so on. Through the continuous improvement, refinement, and coordinated matching of institutions and mechanisms, ensure that coordinated regional development continuously advances to a higher level on the track of law-based governance and standardization, and write a new chapter in coordinated regional development in the New Era.

持续推进体制机制创新，为区域协调发展提供坚实长效保障。面向未来，要将制度建设摆在更加突出位置，为区域协调发展提供体制机制保障。为此，要完善有利于统一大市场建设的统计、财税、考核制度，推动树立和践行正确政绩观；优化企业总部和分支机构、生产地和消费地利益分享，健全区域间规划统筹、产业协作、利益共享等机制；深入推进以人为本的新型城镇化，推行由常住地登记户口提供基本公共服务制度；深化土地制度改革，赋予省级政府统筹建设用地更大自主权；完善多元化生态补偿机制，因地制宜拓展生态产品价值实现渠道，特别是完善横向生态保护补偿机制，把保护者受益、使用者付费落到实处；等等。通过体制机制的不断健全完善与协同配套，确保区域协调发展在法治化、规范化轨道上不断迈向更高水平，谱写新时代区域协调发展新篇章。

(The author is Vice Dean of the National Institute of Strategy and Regional Development, Zhejiang University)

（作者为浙江大学国家战略与区域发展研究院副院长）