Chapter 3206: Sub-center City

In mid-September, the Yanbei Provincial Government officially issued a document—"Yanbei Province Urban System Plan," in which Baozhou City was clearly positioned as a sub-center city of Yanbei Province.

Once this document came out, the whole of Baozhou was jubilant. Everyone knew how much benefit Baozhou City being positioned as a sub-center city of Yanbei Province would bring to Baozhou City.

This was not just a matter of Municipal Party Committee Secretary Zhao Yichen becoming a member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, but a matter of Baozhou City receiving policies issued by the Provincial Government.

Of course, in this urban system plan, there were no specific policies yet, but the document clearly pointed out that within five years, Baozhou City would be built into a mega-city with a built-up area of over 50 square kilometers and a permanent urban population of over one million. To achieve this goal within five years, it would be very difficult without good policies.

Of course, for Su Xinghui, this goal was not high enough, because the mega-city standard of this era was formulated in the 1980s, which was also a classification standard of the United Nations. A city with a permanent urban population of over one million was considered a mega-city.

But now it was the 21st century, and China's population was large. China's current development speed and urbanization speed were also very fast. In the next few years, cities with a permanent urban population of over one million would emerge one after another. By that time, such a city classification standard would no longer be enough.

Therefore, about ten years later, China reformulated the city classification standards. The standard for a mega-city was a city with a permanent urban population of over five million, and the standard for a large city was between one million and five million.

According to the standards of that time, the possibility of Baozhou becoming a mega-city was no longer high, because the total population of the two districts and six counties of the entire Baozhou was only five or six million. However, according to the standards of that time, Baozhou City could still be called a large city, because Su Xinghui planned to let the permanent urban population of Baozhou City reach over three million ten years later.

The current built-up area of Baozhou's urban area was only about 30 square kilometers. Even this area was expanded on a large scale only after Su Xinghui arrived in Baozhou. Now the area of the new district was larger than that of the old urban area. With such an area, it was, of course, far from enough to become a large city.

And the current permanent urban population of Baozhou was only about 500,000. This number was still far from the standard of a large city, so Baozhou City still had a lot of work to do.

Not long after the release of the "Yanbei Province Urban System Plan" document, Baozhou City also released a document—"Baozhou City Urbanization Development Plan," which clearly proposed to increase the built-up area of Baozhou City to over 80 square kilometers and reach a permanent urban population of over one million within five years.

This urbanization development plan also pointed out that within ten years, the built-up area of Baozhou City would be increased to over 150 square kilometers, and the permanent urban population of Baozhou City would be increased to over two million.

In fact, this figure was still a bit conservative. Su Xinghui's real goal was three million, but for the people of Baozhou, this figure was already a bit incredible. Within ten years, to make the built-up area of Baozhou City reach five times the current size and the permanent population reach four times the current size—was this possible?

For a time, the cadres and employees of Baozhou City were discussing it. They felt that this development plan of the Municipal Government was a bit too radical. Was it really possible to achieve this goal within ten years?

However, although they had some doubts, since Su Xinghui arrived in Baozhou, he had already created too many miracles. In two years, Baozhou had undergone too many changes. The built-up area of Baozhou had more than doubled, and Baozhou's GDP had increased several times. So, with ten more years, what miracle couldn't be created?

Not to mention, there were good policies from the province now, which made them believe that there would definitely be no problem in achieving the goals of the Municipal Government's development plan ten years later.

Therefore, the cadres and employees of Baozhou City were inspired with high morale, and they were all determined to contribute their own strength to the development of Baozhou City.

Su Xinghui was still very confident about achieving this goal within ten years, because Baozhou's development speed was already very fast, and with Baozhou City becoming a sub-center city of Yanbei Province, the policies of the Provincial Government would surely come one after another. With such policy support, Baozhou's development speed would definitely be faster.

Because Baozhou City became a sub-center city of Yanbei Province, Su Xinghui made a special trip to Yanzhong City. He was, of course, going to report to Provincial Party Committee Secretary Gan Yuru and Governor Wu Jianbai. In addition, he wanted to know in advance what policies the Provincial Government would give to Baozhou City later.

This was not to blame Su Xinghui for being impatient. If he could know these policies in advance, he could let Baozhou make some targeted preparations in advance, which could also save a lot of time. For the current Baozhou City, it was a matter of seizing every minute; Baozhou's foundation was too poor.

Before Su Xinghui came, he had already contacted Gan Yuru and Wu Jianbai, and they were both very happy to let Su Xinghui come over.

After Su Xinghui arrived in Yanzhong City, he first went to the Provincial Party Committee office building. Less than ten minutes before the appointed time, he went directly to Gan Yuru's office. In the outer room of Gan Yuru's office, Yu Jie was sitting there. Seeing Su Xinghui arrive, he smiled and welcomed Su Xinghui. He let Su Xinghui sit in the outer room for a while, as there was currently a guest in Gan Yuru's office.

Yu Jie brewed a cup of tea for Su Xinghui. Su Xinghui thanked him and then sat down.

Yu Jie whispered to Su Xinghui, "Mayor Su, congratulations!"

Su Xinghui knew why Yu Jie wanted to congratulate him. It was, of course, because Baozhou City had become a sub-center city of Yanbei Province. This was, of course, the biggest good news for him, the vice mayor in charge of the economy.

The policies that the Provincial Government would give to Baozhou next would definitely greatly accelerate Baozhou's economic development speed. Generally speaking, as long as he, the vice mayor, seized the opportunity to make brilliant political achievements, it wouldn't be a difficult thing. His future was bright; this was something everyone could see.

Su Xinghui smiled and nodded to Yu Jie, "Thank you!"

Yu Jie was not a talkative person. He just said this one sentence and then lowered his head to write materials.

After a few minutes, a person came out of Gan Yuru's office. Su Xinghui also knew this person; he was Yue Ming, the Deputy Secretary of the Yanzhong Municipal Party Committee. Seeing Su Xinghui, Yue Ming nodded to him, and Su Xinghui also nodded to him. Yue Ming then went out, and Yu Jie got up and brought Su Xinghui into Gan Yuru's office.

Seeing Su Xinghui, Gan Yuru smiled and said, "Xinghui, how are you? How do you have time to come to the provincial capital today?"

Su Xinghui said, "Secretary Gan, hello! I came today to express my gratitude to you!"

Gan Yuru said, "Oh, then what are you thanking me for?"

Su Xinghui said, "For Baozhou City to become a sub-center city of Yanbei Province, you must have spoken a lot for us, so I must thank you."

Gan Yuru laughed and said, "Just for this? I admit that I did speak for you on this matter, but this matter is more about responsibility than just benefits. Your Baozhou City now not only needs to focus on its own development but also needs to help the surrounding cities develop."

Su Xinghui said solemnly, "Secretary Gan, please rest assured, our Baozhou will definitely try our best to help those surrounding cities develop."