10
MayA few days ago, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council approved the "Planning Outline for Hebei Xiong'an New District", setting a tone for the start-up development of Xiong'an New District. The deadline for the program is 2035, depicting the medium and long-term development prospects of the Xiong'an New District and providing guidance for the planning and construction of the Xiong'an New District.
The Xiong'an New District is positioned as a new city that has become a "city of the future," that is, has advanced concepts and creative thinking. It is foreseeable that Xiong'an New District, built on the basis of this plan, not only explores new ways for China's new urbanization, but also provides a mirror for global urban development and transformation.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council have high expectations for Xiong'an New District in the reply, pointing out that it is necessary to “build a new highland for reform and opening up,” and strive to take the lead in making breakthroughs in important areas and key links through reforms and innovations in institutional mechanisms. The promotion experience provides a demonstration for the whole country.” From this, Xiong'an New District has to play a demonstration role in attracting and stimulating links across the country and open up a sustainable and scalable road for high-quality development. This means that Xiong'an New District is not only focusing on the present, but also looking forward to the future, to create a city of future with “vision, international standards, Chinese characteristics, high point of positioning”.
In order to build a city of the future, Xiong'an New District must get rid of traditional thinking and emancipate the mind, be bold in innovation, and explore new paths.
To this end, Xiong'an New District needs to strengthen the work in the following three areas: cultivating the imagination space of the city of the future, establishing institutional mechanisms that encourage innovation and fault tolerance, and exploring institutional arrangements for evidence-based decision-making and management.
First of all, it is necessary to cultivate the imagination space for the Xiong'an New District to provide new ideas, new concepts, new perspectives, and new theories, so that creative and imaginative solutions can be continuously delivered here and provided for the city of the future with rich and active ideological foundation. Global governments, corporations and non-profit organizations all set up "future laboratories", such as Sony Corporation, New York City Government, and Tsinghua University. Future Lab aims to promote cross-discipline integration and cross-departmental cooperation, and provide incubators that can grow and promote novel and unique ideas.
To realize the great Chinese dream, we need to “open the brain” and think of what people have not thought before we can realize the unheard of future. Therefore, focusing on the development prospects of Xiong'an New District, it is necessary to consider setting up a series of future laboratories, including future urban laboratories, future traffic laboratories, future community laboratories, and future government laboratories, and carry out various crowdfunding and creative initiatives. Contest to strengthen the exploration and imagination of future scenarios. In particular, we must integrate the humanities disciplines such as philosophy, art, and literature with the natural sciences such as computers, materials science, and environmental ecology to promote cross-discipline intersections and stimulate exploration of future creativity and imagination. As the saying goes, "to have a source of water," and only through the continuous flow of ideas from future labs can we provide correct guidance for the development of innovation in Xiong'an New District.
Second, it is necessary to establish an institutional mechanism that encourages innovation and fault-tolerance and error correction so that Xiong'an New District will be the first place to lead innovation. The review pointed out that “The reforms and innovations of the institutional mechanisms that have an important influence on China’s future development direction, play an important role in the national demonstration, and have an important impact on the economic and social development of the Xiong'an New District will be tested first in the new district.” To this end, Xiong'an New District shall be established. The institutional mechanisms that incentivize innovation, discover innovation, incubate innovation, and promote innovation will enable the economy, society, and government governance to explore new ways of innovation.
It is worth noting that innovation will inevitably make mistakes and failures. This is a matter of innovation and it is unavoidable. Therefore, the establishment of an institutional mechanism that conforms to the laws of innovation will allow people to innovate, think about innovation, and innovate. This will enable Xiong'an New District to become the vanguard of high-quality development in China.
The Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the construction of fault-tolerant and error-correcting mechanisms in the past few years, providing institutional space and guarantees for the reform and innovation of various localities and departments, and enabling people to devote themselves to the great cause of comprehensively deepening reforms. Xiong'an New District shall activate the unlimited power of government innovation and social innovation through the reform of the system and mechanism, so as to really stimulate the innovation potential of Xiong'an New District, and make this place an experimental field to be tested first.
Finally, it is necessary to strengthen evidence-based policymaking and management and explore the establishment of appropriate institutional arrangements. The Xiong'an New District is "a piece of white paper," but not every job has to start or pull back. Especially in terms of industrial layout, housing security, smart transportation, and park management, there are many solid evidence and mature experiences at home and abroad for reference.
The construction of the Xiong'an New District calls for new differences and unique approaches, but it is not entirely unique or unique, but it cannot be reversed. If there is solid evidence and mature experience at home and abroad for reference, then it can be used for and used by others.
On the one hand, Xiong'an New District shall establish a knowledge management system, collect, summarize, and refine the latest scientific evidence, policy experiments, and practical experience so that it can be used to support scientific decision-making. On the other hand, it is necessary to establish a policy laboratory, carry out small-scale experiments and pilot projects according to local conditions, and promote the verified solutions in Xiong'an New District and even the surrounding areas.
Future laboratories, encouraging innovation and evidence-based governance are organically combined to form the three pillars of the city of the future. Future labs will provide Xiong'an New District with a wealth of think tanks and creative tips. Evidence-based governance will demonstrate and test the feasibility and suitability of these ideas, and these proven ideas will be implemented through reform and innovation.
Therefore, the combination of ideas, evidence, and innovation will complement each other and will further accelerate the construction and development of Xiong'an New District, making it a veritable city of the future.
(The author is a research fellow at the National Academy of Development and Strategy of Renmin University of China)
Opinions