Feasible “enclave economy” breaks factor bottlenecks for county‑level development in Yishui

Yishui County in Linyi innovates the “enclave‑economy” mechanism to tackle long‑standing developmental bottlenecks of mountainous counties: scattered land resources, insufficient construction plots in remote townships and idle industrial capacity. The model separates project investment‑invitation from physical land‑carrier location, realizing cross‑administrative‑division resource sharing and benefit distribution among towns and the county‑level economic‑development zone.

Geographically Yishui covers a vast mountainous territory. Many remote townships possess willingness and achievements in project attraction, yet lack qualified industrial land for landing. By contrast, Yishui Economic Development Zone serves as the designated “enclave‑receiving zone”, equipped with complete infrastructure, standardized factory buildings, environmental‑protection supporting facilities and professional administrative services. All townships and sub‑districts act as “enclave‑originating zones”, responsible for investment promotion, enterprise service and whole‑cycle project support.

A clear revenue‑sharing rule is put in place: tax generated by enclave‑landed projects is divided at a 70‑to‑30 ratio, with 70 percent going back to the originating township that secured the project and 30 percent retained by the development zone for infrastructure upgrading and public services. The principle of “whoever attracts projects takes charge; whoever revitalizes resources gets ownership; whoever hosts enterprises delivers services” fully mobilizes enthusiasm of all town‑level entities.

Thanks to this institutional design, a great number of projects sourced from mountain townships have settled inside Yishui Economic Development Zone. Up to now, more than 251 industrial enterprises above designated size are located within the zone, contributing over 75 percent of Yishui's total industrial output value. Even the most geographically remote townships have achieved remarkable fiscal‑revenue growth via enclave‑economy dividends, avoiding the dilemma of “good projects with nowhere to land”.

Enclave‑economy also facilitates industrial agglomeration. Concentrated layout of projects inside the development zone optimizes land‑use efficiency, reduces repeated infrastructure construction, and makes it easier to implement unified environmental‑protection, safety supervision and industrial‑chain matching. Moving forward, Yishui will further refine supporting policies, expand the scope of enclave‑project coverage and fuel high‑quality county‑level industrial growth.

Editor：韩蒙蒙