Since the beginning of 2026, Shanghai, Liaoning, Hubei and other places have held intensive meetings, focusing on key areas such as developing new quality productive forces, strengthening business entities, and optimizing the business environment. Based on the differentiation of regional endowments, systematic planning has been carried out to compete for the opening year of the 15th Five Year Plan. Experts say that the "first meeting of the new year" is a window to observe the direction of regional economic development and policy priorities. This year's meetings in various regions were earlier, more practical, stable, and innovative, demonstrating the determination to pursue high-quality development and indicating that China's economic and social development will continue to open up new horizons in overcoming difficulties. Efforts will be made to schedule meetings in Shanghai, Liaoning, Hubei, and other places until the first working day after New Year's Day, in order to kick off the New Year's work. For nine consecutive years, Shanghai has made optimizing the business environment the theme of its first annual meeting. This year, with the special arrangement of "meeting on the first working day of the new year", the city has released the "Action Plan for Accelerating the Creation of an International First Class Business Environment in Shanghai (2026)", which includes 26 precise measures to address practical issues such as bidding and overdue payments that companies are concerned about. On the first working day of 2026, Liaoning Province will hold a provincial conference on optimizing the business environment, deploy eight key areas for rectification, establish a closed-loop management mechanism led by disciplinary inspection and supervision departments, and "strictly deal with and punish all acts that damage the business environment". On January 4th, 2026, the Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Conference was held, and 12 scientists walked on the star studded avenue paved with a hundred meter red carpet, demonstrating Hubei's determination to implement the science and technology innovation leading strategy more vigorously. The meeting proposed to build Hubei into a highland of original innovation sources, a highland of new quality productivity development, a highland of talents from afar, and a highland of innovation ecology demonstration. This technology grand event is not only a centralized review of Hubei's scientific and technological innovation achievements, but also a clear outline of Hubei's strategy and layout for innovation driven high-quality development in the first year of the 15th Five Year Plan. Peng Bo, a researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that the first meetings held in various regions were generally held earlier than in previous years, sending a strong signal of seizing time and seizing the day. The meeting content is often accompanied by specific task lists, project schedules, and division of responsibilities, breaking down macro strategies into actionable annual goals and highlighting practical efforts. Various regions have a profound understanding of 2026 as the special time node of the beginning of the 15th Five Year Plan, and have a clear strategic response to the dual pressures of increasing external environmental uncertainty and the need to enhance endogenous driving force. Focusing on key issues such as technological self-reliance, expanding domestic demand, and stabilizing expectations, it reflects the strategic initiative of various regions to proactively recognize, adapt, and seek change, and respond to the uncertainty of the situation with the certainty of their own work. Zhang Linshan, a researcher at the Institute of Macroeconomics of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that establishing strong promotion mechanisms around the most important, realistic, and urgent strategic tasks in various regions is a "mobilization call" to consolidate social confidence. Through high-level and early deployment meetings, clear and stable policy expectations and development directions have been conveyed to the market and society, which helps to gather forces from all parties, boost development confidence, and create a strong atmosphere of "competing for the economy and promoting development". At the beginning of the new year, various regions have anchored the central spirit, identified key tasks, developed new quality productive forces, strengthened business entities, optimized business environment, and high-level opening up as core issues. Fujian has implemented comprehensive policies around five key areas, including breaking down market barriers and solving the problem of overdue corporate payments, to further optimize the business environment; Liaoning has introduced 34 specific measures from six dimensions, including full lifecycle services for business entities, policy environment, and market environment. The focus has shifted from "enterprises seeking policies" to "policies seeking enterprises", promoting "direct fast access and exemption from application". Zhang Linshan believes that policies in various regions are no longer limited to a single field, but rather build a systematic support system around the overall development. Policy supply has shown a characteristic of shifting from "single point breakthrough" to "system integration". Strengthening the position of enterprises as the main body of innovation is a key direction anchored at the 2025 Central Economic Work Conference and a core lever for activating the innovation momentum of business entities in various regions. Guizhou held a conference to promote the high-quality development of business entities, proposing to fully support the accelerated development of private enterprises, focus on promoting the strengthening, optimization, and expansion of state-owned enterprises, vigorously cultivate enterprises above designated size (limit), implement the action of cultivating enterprises for listing, support and guide enterprises to further strengthen scientific and technological innovation, and enable various business entities to coordinate and compete for development; Hubei takes the Science and Technology Innovation Conference as a starting point, based on industrial demand, to build a solid technological foundation for industrial development and solve the "bottleneck" problem. Qu Qingchao, Dean of the China Market Entity Research Institute at Capital University of Economics and Business, stated that various regions have provided substantial policy support, guiding business entities to deeply cultivate the forefront of technological innovation through measures such as fiscal subsidies, technology finance, and talent policies. Based on the differentiated layout of regional endowments, each region deeply integrates into the "national chess" strategy. Deepening the cultivation and opening up in coastal areas, Hainan has taken the closure of the entire island as a new starting point and held a work conference to promote the construction of a high standard Hainan Free Trade Port, focusing on the flow of goods and factors for opening up; Strengthening endogenous power in inland areas, Henan will link and promote the construction of major projects with high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. The number and investment amount of manufacturing projects planned to start in the first quarter of 2026 account for about 70%; Provinces and cities within the Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, and other regions emphasize collaborative linkage, while strategic nodes such as the Chengdu Chongqing Economic Circle focus on improving their capabilities; Many prefecture level cities also prioritize county-level economy, rural revitalization, and new urbanization with county towns as important carriers. This differentiated layout not only leverages the comparative advantages of different regions, but also forms a development synergy through regional collaboration. Peng Bo stated that the key tasks established at the beginning of the year meetings in various regions have outlined the development path and priority order for the new year, and also established a "fine construction plan" to promote high-quality development. This marks the transition of high-quality development from a macro blueprint to a refined implementation stage, laying a solid foundation for economic and social development throughout the year. Breaking through in the "new" areas, some places focus on cultivating future industries such as artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low altitude economy. Breaking through in the "new" areas, embracing the new wave, and demonstrating the determination to seize the high ground of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. Jinan, Shandong Province, has deployed a focus on "digital intelligence", proposing to use "artificial intelligence+" and "data elements X" as dual wheel drivers, take the overall digital transformation as the main line, and aim to enhance the city's core competitiveness and create a high-quality life for citizens. The goal is to build a "solid foundation, integrated elements, industrial leap, intelligent governance, and safe and trustworthy" digital intelligence Jinan construction model. Nanjing, Jiangsu Province has released the "Artificial Intelligence+" action plan and the 6G City Plan, while Suzhou is promoting the eight major actions of "AI+Manufacturing" to create a demonstration zone for new industrialization. Various regions are focusing on the new track of future industries, promoting the transformation of manufacturing from scale expansion to energy level leap. Expanding effective investment through major project construction remains the cornerstone of stable economic growth. Yunnan has designated 2026 as the "year of project breakthroughs", with the proportion of industrial investment remaining above 50% for three consecutive years, and the proportion of private investment in industries exceeding 65%. The investment growth has shifted from being mainly driven by transportation and real estate investment to being mainly driven by industrial investment, and from being mainly driven by government investment to being driven by both government and private investment. On January 5th, Shenzhen held a project construction site promotion meeting for 2026, starting with 222 new projects with a total investment of approximately 157.34 billion yuan for the "15th Five Year Plan". Zhang Linshan said that it is worth noting that some places have set red lines for high energy consuming and high emission projects, and instead vigorously support the construction of green energy bases and circular economy industrial parks. The project investment in 2026 will pay more attention to "per mu benefit" and "green low-carbon". While emphasizing high-quality development, various regions have made special arrangements for preventing and resolving economic and financial risks, ensuring production safety, and ensuring food and energy security. Jilin Province proposes to transform debt insurance into high-quality development, promote high-quality development through debt insurance, strictly prevent false debt, prohibit illegal addition of implicit debt, and strictly adhere to the bottom line of preventing systemic financial risks. As a major agricultural province, Henan Province has placed the conference venue at an intelligent agricultural machinery enterprise. Intelligent agricultural machinery directly refers to "agricultural modernization", which emphasizes not only the upgrading of manufacturing industry, but also the reconstruction of agricultural production mode; The high-quality development of manufacturing industry is being examined in the overall coordinates of serving a strong agricultural province, supporting urban-rural integration, and ensuring national food security. Seeking progress while maintaining stability in various regions, coordinating development and security, reflecting bottom line thinking and systematic concepts. Ensuring people's livelihood and well-being is also an important content that runs through the annual meetings held in various regions. Multiple regions have deployed livelihood projects such as employment, education, healthcare, elderly care, and housing, emphasizing the need to secure the bottom line. On January 4th, the scheduling meeting for promoting the construction of major projects in the eastern new area of Chengdu was held, which pointed out a new direction for the new year's projects in the new area. The meeting proposed to focus on expanding domestic demand planning projects, seize the opportunities of the "dual" and "two new" policies, implement a number of urban renewal projects that make up for shortcomings, benefit people's livelihoods, and strengthen functions, and improve the city's carrying capacity and attractiveness; There are also some western regions that emphasize rural revitalization and preventing poverty from returning, conveying the warmth of people's livelihood. (New Society)