CCTV News (News Network): During his work in Zhejiang, General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly explained the need to "break out of Zhejiang to develop Zhejiang" with the theory of "sweet potato economy", and strive to promote local enterprises to go global, allocate resources on a larger scale, and achieve greater development in a larger space. Over the past 20 years, Zhejiang has continued to make efforts and worked hard for a long time, constantly consolidating the vitality of the "sweet potato economy", serving the country and looking at the world, continuously promoting high-level opening up to the outside world, accelerating the construction of a new development pattern, injecting new momentum and adding new vitality to high-quality development.

Foreign trade exports firmly ranked second in the country, actual use of foreign capital jumped third in the country, and foreign direct investment ranked second in the country. This is the report card handed over by Zhejiang in 2024. In the first quarter of this year, Zhejiang's foreign trade imports and exports were 1.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.3% year-on-year, ranking first in the country in terms of growth contribution. Today, opening up has become a distinct symbol of Zhejiang's high-quality development, and these are inseparable from the long-term outline that focused on the future more than 20 years ago and the vivid practice of Zhejiang's development of the "sweet potato economy" over the past 20 years.

The "sweet potato economy" is an open economic form composed of "tubers" and "vies". The growth of vines requires nutrients to be drawn outward, and the ultimate goal is that the tubers grow thick and large.

In December 2002, Comrade Xi Jinping, then Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, came to Ningbo, Taizhou and Wenzhou for investigation. During this trip, Comrade Xi Jinping visited many private enterprises. In Yueqing, Wenzhou, he learned that the local electrical leader Delixi Group is facing a development bottleneck.

Comrade Xi Jinping said on the spot that the provincial party committee and government supported enterprises to go global and could consider putting the R&D headquarters and marketing headquarters in Shanghai.

Zhejiang has a small land area and relatively poor natural resources. With the continuous expansion of the total economic volume, "innate shortcomings" and "growth troubles" have gradually emerged. Comrade Xi Jinping is keenly aware that Zhejiang's development is entering a critical period and urgently needs to expand new space and seek new development.

In 2003, he included "improving the level of domestic and foreign opening up" in the "Eight Eight Strategy" to lead Zhejiang's long-term development, and proposed to actively connect with Shanghai and actively participate in cooperation and exchanges in the Yangtze River Delta region.

In May 2004, he led the Zhejiang Provincial Party and Government delegation to Sichuan, Chongqing and Wuhan for inspection, learning from the strengths of various places and making up for Zhejiang's shortcomings.

Based on in-depth research, Comrade Xi Jinping proposed to break out of Zhejiang's overall strategic perspective and develop Zhejiang. In August of that year, he published a short comment in the "Zhijiang New Language" column of Zhejiang Daily, explaining how to take the initiative in the new round of competition. The article says: The vines of sweet potato extend in all directions to absorb more sunshine, rain and dew, and nutrients, but its tubers are always at the base, and the extension and expansion of the vines are ultimately so that the tubers can grow thicker and larger. Similarly, when our enterprises go global, it is not about capital outflow or enterprise migration. This is the need to allocate resources on a larger scale and achieve greater development in a larger space.

Under the guidance of Comrade Xi Jinping, Zhejiang actively paved the way for Zhejiang businessmen to "go global" and guide them, while creating a good investment and entrepreneurial environment to attract more successful Zhejiang businessmen who start businesses abroad to feed back their hometowns. Inspired by the inspiration, Delixi Group has successively established headquarters, sales centers and R&D centers in Shanghai, opening up a new world for development. The continuous improvement of the company's production scale and innovation capabilities has also brought more benefits to the hometown of Wenzhou and driven the rapid development of the local supply chain. As more and more Zhejiang enterprises go global, the "sweet potato economy" continues to grow and grow. Zhejiang's foreign trade, foreign investment, and overseas investment have set new highs in a row. The regional GDP has increased from 800.4 billion yuan in 2002 to 186.4 billion yuan in 2007, with an average annual growth of 14.1%.

Reform does not stop, and opening up does not stop. Over the past 20 years, Zhejiang has actively integrated into national and global development. Serve the integration of the Yangtze River Delta to the east, support the development of the western region to the west, connect to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to the south, participate in the comprehensive revitalization of the Northeast to the north, and contribute to major national strategies. At the same time, with the construction of a commodity resource allocation hub, a world-class strong port, and a small commodity capital in the world as the key support, we will vigorously promote product exports and capital overseas, and continue to expand new advantages in the development of an open economy.

As of the end of 2024, Zhejiang has registered more than 14,000 foreign investment enterprises, with a filing of US$144.88 billion, covering 153 countries and regions; 119,000 enterprises with export performance have reached 20 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones; a number of private multinational enterprises have stood out, and 6 Fortune 500 companies have emerged.

Today, Zhejiang is deeply involved in global industrial division of labor and cooperation and optimized resource allocation, actively integrating into and serving the new development pattern, and continuously promoting high-quality development to achieve new results and create new situations.