On June 23, at the launch of the 2021 Top 100 Chinese Listed Companies Ranking in Shanghai, Shen Hanyao, Chairman of the China Top 100 Forum and President of the Walton Institute of Economic Research, put forward a new strategy for the synergistic development of the four echelons of the Top 100 enterprise group.

Shen Hanyao pointed out that China's top 500 listed companies, last year, to create total profits exceeded 5 trillion, accounting for more than 4,000 listed companies in China's total profits of 95%. 500 companies' turnover of more than 39 trillion, the market value of more than 52 trillion, and the ratio of the total national GDP of 39% and 52%, so China's top 100 listed companies as China's economic powerhouse is well deserved.

In order to better play the role of the main force of the top 100 companies, Shen Hanyao proposed to divide the top 100 enterprises into four echelons according to their functions and roles. The first echelon is the development and construction enterprises, mainly including construction, mining, real estate, etc. There are 117 enterprises with total profits of 105.421 billion yuan, accounting for 20.78% of the total profits of the Top 100 companies. The second echelon is the manufacturing conglomerate, which is the main body of industrialization and industrialization, with 211 enterprises having a total profit of more than one trillion yuan, accounting for 19.78% of the total profit of all the Top 100 companies. The third echelon is the service industry enterprises, including transportation, communications, commerce and trade, etc. There are 92 enterprises with total profits exceeding 400 billion yuan, accounting for 8.23% of the total profits of the top 100 companies. The fourth echelon is financial institutions, providing financial support for the other three echelons, with 80 companies with total profits of 259.89 billion yuan, accounting for 51.22% of the total profits of all 500 companies on the list.

Shen Hanyao pointed out that the synergistic development strategy of the four echelons of the top 100 enterprise groups is first of all the clustering development among enterprises of each echelon. Enterprise clusters can form economy of scale effect, economy of scope effect and aggregation effect. Enterprise clusters can realize win-win situation through common procurement, common demand creation and common market expansion. Enterprise clusters can also integrate their respective advantageous resources for joint research, share scientific and technological innovation results and realize collaborative innovation.

One of the important missions of the Top 100 enterprise clusters is to participate in the Yangtze River Delta integration, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area construction, Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Economic Circle construction and other major national strategies. The cooperation between the enterprise clusters and city clusters should be focused on the integration of strategic planning and the synergistic operation of the cities and enterprises. On the one hand, through the integration and optimization of strategic planning, enterprise clusters and city clusters can significantly enhance the expected economic value of the city and design a bigger cake; at the same time, they can optimize the allocation of resources, concentrate the strength of the four echelons of the top 100 enterprise clusters to fight the battle of annihilation, and a battle should push the development of the city to a big level, significantly enhance the overall economic value of the city and make the cake bigger. On the other hand, enterprise clusters and city clusters can deepen the synergistic operation mechanism in accordance with the strategic alliance, building community, etc., to effectively reduce the friction and transaction costs in the cooperation, so that enterprises and cities can maximize their own value and form a win-win situation. The enterprise group and the city group should operate in accordance with the logical order of the four echelons, first of all, the first echelon, development and construction is the foundation of the city's economic development, whether it is the old city renovation or the development of new districts should be the first echelon of synergistic development. Next is the second echelon, strengthen the industrialization of the development, which is the real economic development of the top priority. Followed by the third echelon, the service industry to promote circulation, active economy. The fourth echelon, the financial sector, provides financial support for the synergistic development of all echelons and city clusters.

Now, the development of cities has been upgraded from individual cities to city cluster development, the energy of city clusters is greater than the simple sum of individual cities, and the synergistic promotion between enterprise clusters and city clusters is even more of a multiplier effect, 3x3 is much larger than 3+3. Therefore, the larger the scale of the clusters, the more significant the agglomeration effect, the more value the synergistic development of enterprise clusters and city clusters can create.

The internal structure of the four echelons of enterprise clusters also remains to be optimized, with the financial sector accounting for a disproportionately large share of the profits of the top 500 companies, more than 51%. The advantage is that it shows that our country's financial industry is very robust, which is conducive to preventing risks; the disadvantage is that it will increase the cost burden of the real economy. Shen Hanyao puts forward four suggestions in this regard: First, the development of commercial banks should be optimized, and the profit should be greatly reduced, and the interest rate of loans should be reduced by 30%. Second, the development of the capital market should be sound. Third, the development of investment fund market should be speeded up. Fourth, financial derivatives transactions should be strictly limited or even eliminated, and the development of the futures market should be prudent.

(Organized by the Walton Economic Institute based on the recording of Shen Hanyao's speech)