1.3　High-level Consultation for Cities

Cities are the main areas and spatial carrier of economic activities in a country or region,and the center of regional development.Urban economy is a type of regional economy with the city as the spatial carrier,featuring prosperous development of the secondary and tertiary industries,constantly optimized economic structure,highly concentrated production factors such as capital,technology,labor,and information,as well as prominent scale effect,aggregation effect and diffusion effect.Urban economy plays a leading role in the development and revitalization of a country or region.

2020 is the last year to implement the 13 th Five-Year Plan,and 2021 is the first year to implement the 14 th Five-Year Plan when China would start a new journey of social and economic development.The urban pattern is bound to undergo new changes during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period.All provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities have planned their own economic goals and tasks for the 14 th Five-Year Plan period,for which an important index is improving the new urbanization rate in China.RDI has always closely integrated smart city construction with new urbanization.It held"RDI High-level Consultative Conference",high-end forums and seminars with local governments upon the latter's invitation according to local development needs,strategic orientation and industrial layout,and invited experts from various industries to conduct indepth field research,and provide suggestions on development planning,industrial layout,business environment and investment attraction for local governments at the Highlevel Consultative Conference,so as to promote the high-quality development of local economy.

July 24 th -25 th ,2020 saw the successful holding of the high-level consultative conference themed"Promoting Coordinated Development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and Building a Modern Baoding"which was sponsored by CPC Baoding Municipal Committee and Baoding Municipal People's Government,BRI International Think Tank of CASS,and RDI.Xiaolong DANG,Secretary of CPC Baoding Municipal Committee,and other leaders of CPC Baoding Municipal Committee and Baoding Municipal People's Government attended the conference.

Experts attending the conference include:Qifan HUANG,former Mayor of Chongqing and Co-Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI;Baige ZHAO,Vice Chair of the 12 th NPC Foreign Affairs Committee,Chair of Advisory Committee of BRI International Think Tank of CASS,and Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI;Yi'nan JIN,former Deputy Director of the Strategic Teaching and Research Department and Director of Strategic Studies Institute,National Defense University PLA China;Xin LU,former Vice Minister of Education;Dawei ZHANG,Vice Chair of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former Vice Governor of Henan;Renliang NIU,former Vice Governor of Shanxi;Mingwei ZHOU,former Director of China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration;Qunhui HUANG,Director of Institute of Economics of CASS;Kui FENG,Vice Chair of Central Economic Committee of China Democratic League and Secretary General of Academic Committee of China Center for City and Small Town Reform and Development of the National Development and Reform Commission,etc.These experts focused on the economic development of Baoding,the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,industrial transformation and upgrading,sci-tech innovation development,efficient talent flow,urbanization,and big health development,with the aim of providing suggestions for the high-quality economic development of Baoding during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period.

From September 17 th to 20 th ,2020,at the invitation of CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee and Qinghai Provincial People's Government,BRI International Think Tank of CASS and RDI jointly held a high-level consultative conference on"Ecological Protection and High-quality Development of Yellow River Basin in Qinghai".This conference was attended by such experts as Qifan HUANG,former Mayor of Chongqing and Co-Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI;Baige ZHAO,Vice Chair of the 12 th NPC Foreign Affairs Committee,Chair of Advisory Committee of BRI International Think Tank of CASS,and Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI;Dawei ZHANG,Vice Chair of China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former Vice Governor of Henan;and Xin LU,former Vice Minister of Education.Experts attending the conference focused on topics such as"ecological protection and innovative development","establishing a new industrial system adapted to high-quality development"and"establishing correct development plan and implementation path in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the rapid development of digital economy",aiming at providing intellectual support for Qinghai to further enhance its position and role in the overall development of China and build a new pattern in which ecological protection and green development complement each other.

The expert consultative conference on the 14 th Five-Year Plan of Qinghai was held on September 18 th and was presided over by Baige ZHAO,Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI.Changxing XIN,Deputy Secretary of CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee and Governor of Qinghai attended the conference and delivered a speech,and Jiexiang LI,Member of the Standing Committee of CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee and Executive Vice Governor of Qinghai,introduced the basic thinking on the 14 th Five-Year Plan of Qinghai.

Experts attending the conference include Qifan HUANG,former Mayor of Chongqing and Co-Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI;Dawei ZHANG,Vice Chair of China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former Vice Governor of Henan;Qunhui HUANG,Director of Institute of Economics of CASS and Member of Advisory Committee of National Development Planning During the 14 th Five-Year Plan;Biao QIAO,Deputy Chief Engineer of China Center for Information Industry Development(CCID);Jiaming ZHU,Head of Digital Assets Research Center;Hongguang WANG,Director of International Center for Bioeconomy,Tsinghua University;Hongyang ZHOU,Vice President of Chinese National Academy of Arts;Xiaoyun TANG,Vice President of China Tourism Academy;Dianlong ZHAO,Chairman of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation;Ke MA,Deputy Director of Central Culture Committee of China Democratic League and so on.These experts adopted a problem-oriented approach and comprehensively examined the situation of Qinghai according to its actual conditions,with focus on such aspects as national parks,Lanzhou-Xining urban agglomeration,digital economy,energy industry,and cultural and tourism industry.They provided important suggestions for the 14 th Five-Year Plan and even future development of Qinghai,and formulated high-level research reports such as the Research Report on System Pilot and Construction of the Three-River-Source National Park and the Summary Report of Qinghai Ecological Protection and High Quality Development of the Yellow River Basin Seminar — the High-level Consultative Conference of Research and Development International(RDI) .The leaders of the Central Government attached great importance to these reports and made important instructions and comments.

September 28 th ,2020 witnessed the launch of a series of activities of the RDI High-level Consultative Conference on"Innovating Intelligent Manufacturing to Promote Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Integration and Coordinated Development"in Xiangtan.It was co-sponsored by CPC Xiangtan Municipal Committee and Xiangtan Municipal People's Government of Hunan Province,BRI International Think Tank of CASS,and RDI,and presided over by Baige ZHAO,Vice Chair of the 12 th NPC Foreign Affairs Committee,Chair of Advisory Committee of BRI International Think Tank of CASS and Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI.Experts such as Zukang SHA,President of China-Pakistan Friendship Association and former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations;Junli WANG,Vice Chair of China Reform Forum;Xisheng ZHOU,former Vice President of Xinhua News Agency;Xiaogang ZHAO,former Chairman of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Limited;Jing GENG,Director-General of China Cultural Heritage Foundation;Biao QIAO,Deputy Chief Engineer of China Center for Information Industry Development;and Yiming CHEN,Executive Director and Executive Secretary of The Commerce Economy Association of China elaborated on"developing emerging technologies to build a modern industrial system","upholding the‘dual circulation'strategy and coordinated development of Belt and Road countries".It is aimed to further promote the coordinated development of"Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Integration"in Xiangtan and optimize the industrial layout of the region,and realize the high-quality economic development of Xiangtan.

On November 4 th ,2020,at the invitation of CPC Zhuozhou Municipal Committee and Zhuozhou Municipal People's Government,BRI International Think Tank of CASS and RDI jointly held a seminar in Zhuozhou to study the development of Zhuozhou,Baoding.It was presided over by Baige ZHAO,Vice Chair of the 12 th NPC Foreign Affairs Committee,Chair of Advisory Committee of BRI International Think Tank of CASS and Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI.Yiming CHEN,Executive Director and Executive Secretary of the Commerce Economy Association of China;Jun ZHENG,Chief International Business Expert of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and President of China Civil Engineering Research Institute;Jianming HUANG,Director of the Enterprise Development Bureau of Suzhou Industrial Park;Jijun WANG,Leader of the International Medical Alliance Branch of China Optimization Society of Capital Construction;Yuchen ZHI,Member of Advisory Committee of RDI;and Wenhui CHEN,strategy expert of China Association of Productivity Promotion Centers and so on,focused on topics such as"how Zhuozhou helps form an industrial agglomeration ecosystem of characteristic towns through innovation and upgrading of industrial parks","how to use the smart town system in Zhuozhou to foster a new‘dual circulation'development pattern",and"how to apply the research on the openness index system of Belt and Road countries to the smart city construction evaluation"to create a first-class business environment in Zhuozhou to provide intellectual support for Zhuozhou's innovative development.Yuntao YAO,Secretary of CPC Zhuozhou Municipal Committee and other leaders of CPC Zhuozhou Municipal Committee and Zhuozhou Municipal People's Government attended the seminar.

In 2020,we were actively involved in Zhuhai-Macao cooperation.Three sessions of Shizimen Finance Week have been successfully held since 2018.Shizimen Finance Week brings together forces and resources from various circles such as politics,economics,commerce and think tanks,with effective suggestions put forward for innovative development of finance in Greater Bay Area in various forms,such as high-end forums,symposiums,joint meetings of financial institutions and enterprises,and professional subforums,which facilitates the gathering of financial,industrial and technological resources and thus becomes the highlight of financial development in the Greater Bay Area.

In 2020,we have established close cooperation with major juncture cities in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,Yangtze River Delta,Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,Bohai Rim and the central and western regions,such as Zhuhai,Ningbo,Suzhou,Baoding,Qingdao,and Xining.This effort aims to advance the research by the national think tank,facilitate the coordinated development of urban agglomerations,upgrade local industrial clusters and enhance the international level of cities.

Looking into the future,we will give full play to our role as a new-type think tank with Chinese characteristics.We will guide the local development direction and optimize the business environment through policy research,build a platform for combining the industry and finance to assist local governments in attracting investment and enterprises in innovative development,and facilitate local governments in international cooperation and exchanges through resource introduction,thus helping local cities improve weak links to integrate into"dual circulation". Pq3uKWcveVGLzU6cvwTxMNGDLpBI+0QGdrS8+82Fv0XM8YgM4wigvrJZKvt13ziC