Big base joins hands with major platforms, old industries surge with new momentum

Within two days, the party secretaries and governors of two northeastern provinces—successively—met with the same entrepreneur.

On March 24, Heilongjiang Party Secretary Xu Qin and Governor Liang Huiling met in Harbin with JD.com Group founder and Chairman of the Board Richard Liu, together witnessing the signing of a deepening strategic cooperation agreement between the provincial government and JD.com Group. The next day, Liaoning Party Secretary Xu Kunlin and Governor Wang Xinxing held discussions with Richard Liu’s delegation in Shenyang, and on the same day they also jointly attended the signing ceremony for a 15-billion-yuan project between the Dalian municipal government and the Seaeel Yacht Industry Development Co., Ltd.

Exactly one week earlier, on March 17, also in Heilongjiang, a symposium that brought together multiple well-known private entrepreneurs was held in Yabuli.

Party Secretary Xu Qin and Governor Liang Huiling jointly attended the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum—private entrepreneurs symposium. Attendees included Li Xiaojia, the forum’s rotating chairman and founder of Drip Capital; Yao Jingbo, the joint rotating chairman and chairman of 58.com; Yu Minhong, chairman of New Oriental; Zhang Wen Zhong, founder of Yonghui Group, and others.

Behind the tightly packed schedule of meetings is the fact that the Northeast Revitalization Strategy has entered a key planning period for the “15th Five-Year” plan, with the latest developments showing how private enterprises and old industrial bases are seeking deep alignment across dimensions such as cultivating new quality productive forces, upgrading consumption, and expanding opening-up to the outside world.

Returning to Richard Liu’s trip to the Northeast. In the meeting in Heilongjiang, a core logic is the effective alignment between the Heilongjiang Great Base and JD’s Great Platform. Xu Qin clearly said he hopes both sides will deepen practical cooperation in areas such as market consumption, foreign trade, “AI+”, integration of culture, tourism, and resources, and logistics network operations.

Richard Liu summarized Heilongjiang’s advantages with “a favorable ecological environment, obvious agricultural strengths, abundant culture and tourism resources, and a promising development momentum,” and pledged to increase investment and deployment, with specific emphasis on “cultivating new consumer scenarios and new business formats,” among others.

In Liaoning, during the meeting, Xu Kunlin said Liaoning is “strengthening the function of an opening-up and cooperation hub and vigorously developing new foreign trade business formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses.” This is closely related to Liaoning’s geographic advantages: it lies in the core area of the Northeast Asia economic circle and has dual land-and-sea transport channels.

In his remarks in Liaoning, Richard Liu provided a specific goal drawing attention: to strive to double the operating scale in Liaoning within three years—raising it from the current 50 billion yuan to 100 billion yuan.

The recent intensive interactions between the two northeastern provinces and private entrepreneurs are not coincidental.

From Harbin to Shenyang, from multiple entrepreneurs at the Yabuli forum to Richard Liu’s trips to Heilongjiang and Liaoning, the interactions between the Northeast and the private economy are sending an important signal.

First, the Northeast has consistently attached great importance to the business environment. Heilongjiang has clearly stated it will continue to optimize the business environment, and Liaoning has pledged to provide full-chain, full-lifecycle service guarantees. Against the backdrop of intensified regional competition, making services felt by companies is a key variable for attracting incremental investment.

Second, the convergence between leading platform enterprises and local development is becoming more practical. The focus of discussions is no longer simply the amount of investment, but rather specific, actionable, and assessable areas such as “AI+,” “cross-border e-commerce + industrial belts,” and reducing costs and improving efficiency in logistics.

Third, the Northeast Revitalization Strategy is seeking a balance of “market + resources.” Whether it is Heilongjiang’s upward flow of agricultural products and the digital transformation of manufacturing, or Liaoning’s construction of outward-opening transport channels, the core is to combine local resource endowments and regional location conditions with companies’ supply chain, technology, and market-channel advantages.

The Outline for the “15th Five-Year” Plan has already clearly proposed developing and strengthening the private economy, and has written in areas such as “implementing the Private Economy Promotion Law” and “improving the integrated service system for private economic development.” Against this backdrop, the two-way pursuit between the Northeast and private enterprises is both a realistic choice for local development and a practical implementation of national strategy.

Once you pass the Shanhai Pass, the world opens up for investment. How enterprises and local areas can chart new paths through mutual benefit and win-win results—these specific cooperation practices may provide more convincing answers.

(“Sanlihe” Studio)