Zhejiang “100 billion counties”, expanded to 28

Recently, all parts of Zhejiang have successively announced 2023 GDP data, so that the map of “100 billion counties” has changed again.

A county with an economic aggregate of over 100 billion yuan is becoming more and more common in Zhejiang: in 2013, Cixi became the first “100 billion county” in Zhejiang, and many strong counties entered the era of “100 billion counties” to promote the high-quality development of Zhejiang’s economy. Today, ten years later, Zhejiang billion counties (cities and districts) have expanded to 28.

Through the new faces and new changes in the map of “100 billion counties”, we found the unusual place of this expansion.

The foundation of high-quality development is in the county, the potential is in the county, and the advantage is in the county.

In recent years, the top ten “hundred billion counties” are basically from the two cities of Hangyong, and the tenth is Shaoxing Keqiao. It can be said that in the regional economic map of Zhejiang, Hangzhou-Ningbo “tale of two cities”.

In 2023, Keqiao’s GDP exceeded 200 billion yuan for the first time, with a growth rate 2 percentage points higher than that of the province. Local officials commented that the difficulties and challenges were greater than expected, and the results and changes were better than expected.

Despite these efforts, Keqiao has been overtaken by Yiwu. In 2023, Yiwu’s GDP also reached a new level of 200 billion yuan for the first time, reaching 205.562 billion yuan. In addition, Yiwu’s import and export volume exceeded the 500 billion yuan mark for the first time, ranking first in the province’s counties (cities and districts), with a year-on-year growth of 18.2%.

The carry of Yiwu proves in its own way: not relying on the river, not facing the sea, not along the border, a small inland county can also set sea, land and air channels in one, and find a place in the global competition. At the same time, Yiwu has also made it possible for cities outside the Hangzhou Yongshao region to catch up.