"Working on the front line of our country's Reform and Open-up, we need to establish a broad vision on global trends," said Wang Yang, member of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of Guangdong provincial Party committee, on the 12th plenary session of Guangdong provincial Party committee. Wang emphasized that establishing "global vision"means Guangdong must adopt creative strategies and set up innovative goals for its future development according to the global situations, when it is undergoing the industry upgrade and economy development mode switch.

Establish a Global Vision

Wang analyzed in details the necessity and urgency of establishing a global vision for Guangdong’s development on the 12th plenary session of Guangdong provincial Party committee. He explained that the current relationship between China and the world had changed historically, making it impossible to separate China's destiny from that of the world. Therefore, Guangdong needs to take into account the domestic and international situations and establish a global vision accordingly when planning development strategies.

Firstly, the opening up pushes Guangdong to set up a global vision. After Guangdong’s thirty years of opening up to the outside world, its economy has become an important part of the world economy. Guangdong’s volumes of import and export and its use of foreign funds take up around 1/3 and 1/4 of the national volumes respectively in the past several years. The rate of dependency of Guangdong’s economy on foreign trade is 160.4 percents, with 91.9 percents on export. In a sense, the influence of the world’s political and economic situations on Guangdong’s economy is greater than that of the domestic situations. For example, the US’s secondary credit crisis, the exchange rate depreciation of US dollar, the continuous rise of internal oil and food prices, all contribute to Guangdong’s assets value fluctuation, the decrease in export benefit, shortage of resources and energy, and even inflation. Without a broad vision on the global situation, Guangdong will not be able to foresee international threats and respond accordingly to the economic changes.

Secondly, China is a new member of WTO and is still a learner in many fields, unfamiliar to ever-increasing sets of standards, rules, and methods. Only with a global vision and the attitude of a modest learner, can Guangdong become a master and policy-maker in international competition, so as to increase its market share. For example, ZTE Corporation, a local telecommunication company, adopted international strategies in 1995, and in a decade, the company’s technology in many fields has reached advanced international level, including the international standards the company participated in formulating. Yet models like ZTE Corporation are very few.

Thirdly, Guangdong’s current position in domestic economy and the new strategy for its development require itself to form a global vision. Since Guangdong holds the position as “the first world” in domestic economy, its strategy for development should focus on modernizing the industrial system and thus enhancing its competency in international competition. Therefore, we must have a clear view of the trends of international industry, science, and technology, and adjust our industry structure in accordance with the most advanced industry in the world. Only in this way can we take the lead in the modernization of international industry.

Guangdong was the starting point of the “silk road on the ocean” in the history with a strong sense of oceanic culture and opening-up to the outside world. In the early years of China’s modern history, Lin Zexu, a Guangdong Governor in Qing Dynasty, was the first Chinese to “open his eyes to the world.” Yet, the first Chinese to “step into the international stage” was Huang Zunxian, a native of Meizhou city in Guangdong. The first Chinese who went to study in America was Rong Hong, a local in Xiangzhou, Zhouhai. Sun Yat-sen was a great man with a global vision, whose motto was “follow the great torrent of the world’s trends, or get overturned by it.” He stressed that we should “take into careful consideration both the domestic situation and the world’s trend,” so as to learn the advancements of the world. Cantonese oversea businessmen are all over the world, and rank the first place in number among all overseas Chinese. When the reform and opening-up was adopted, Guangdong again was the first province to seek foreign capital investment, with Zhouhai Shijin Mountain Travel Agency as the first joint-venture company in China.

Guangdong had its first economic take-off 30 years ago through opening up to the outside world, and now, to seek future development, it is to start another round of brain storm to form a broader view on the global trends.

Editor: Yan