The fire of low-altitude economy, from the Central Economic Work Conference at the end of last year, to the local two conferences, and then to the national two conferences, has continued. Whether it is local government, relevant ministries or various enterprises, whether it is civil aviation, manufacturing, service and other industries, they are closely following this emerging strategic industry, thinking, planning and acting.
In the 2024 government work report, it was put forward: "Accelerate the development of frontier emerging industries such as hydrogen energy, new materials and innovative drugs, and actively create new growth engines such as bio-manufacturing, commercial aerospace and low-altitude economy."
The word "low-altitude economy" first appeared in the government work report, highlighting the important role of a number of strategic emerging industries represented by low-altitude economy in building new quality productivity and promoting high-quality economic development. In the face of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, all localities have developed low-altitude economy, a new qualitative productivity, according to local conditions. In 2024, has the first year of low-altitude economy arrived?
The top floor is designed to keep the rudder accurate.
The fiery low-altitude economy lies in the layout of the top-level design.
In 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline, which brought the low-altitude economy into China’s development blueprint for the first time. In December 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed to build a number of strategic emerging industries, including low-altitude economy. On January 1, 2024, the Provisional Regulations on Flight Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles was officially implemented, which indicated that China’s UAV industry would enter a new stage of standardized development with laws to follow, which further stimulated the development of low-altitude economy.
At the National People’s Congress this year, the word "low-altitude economy" first appeared in the government work report, which also triggered a heated discussion among the deputies. Ningbo, deputy to the National People’s Congress and secretary of Wuhu Municipal Party Committee, said: "Low-altitude economy has become an important field to cultivate new kinetic energy, and it is suggested to vigorously promote the healthy development of low-altitude economy." In addition, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Zhang Ying, director of the Shanghai Economic and Information Committee, NPC deputies, members of the General Party Branch of the Terminal Management Department of Taiyuan International Airport Co., Ltd. of Shanxi Aviation Industry Group Co., Ltd., and Ma Tonggui, deputy manager, all mentioned the importance of top-level design in developing low-altitude economy.
From the steady growth of traditional navigation operations such as agriculture, forestry, plant protection and power inspection, to the accelerated development of new formats such as air tour, air sports and medical rescue, and to the continuous development of unmanned aerial vehicles in personal consumption, geographic mapping, film and television aerial photography, the low-altitude economy is heating up, and all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) are actively responding to the call and seizing development opportunities, adding momentum to the development of low-altitude economy.
The Action Plan of Shanghai Building a Future Industrial Innovation Highland and Developing Future Industrial Clusters proposes to break through tilting rotor, compound wing, intelligent flight and other technologies, develop manned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, and explore a new mode of air traffic. Hefei Low-altitude Economic Development Action Plan (2023-2025) aims to basically build Hefei into a "low-altitude city" with international influence in 2025, and lead the world in scientific and technological research and development, industrial agglomeration, application scenarios, standard rules and flight support. The Action Plan for High-quality Development of Low-altitude Economy in Wuhu City (2023-2025) proposes to accelerate the development into a pioneering area, gathering area and demonstration area of low-altitude economic development in China …
On the road of "invisible and intangible" at low altitude, the action plans of various regions illuminate the road ahead like bright lights, and the in-depth development of low-altitude airspace management reform has also broadened the road of low-altitude economic development by releasing low-altitude airspace resources. In 2023, the pilot airspace of collaborative management of low-altitude airspace in Sichuan was expanded from 6,600 square kilometers to more than 7,800 square kilometers, 171 airspace and 97 normalized low-altitude visual routes were designated in Hunan, and 22 temporary airspace and 15 temporary routes were designated in Anhui.
Liu Chuanjian, deputy to the National People’s Congress and chief pilot of the Civil Aviation Flight Academy of China, said that the legal regulation of low-altitude economy is a long-term and systematic project. In the future, the top-level design scheme of low-altitude economy will be further refined and concrete, and the innovation of the rule of law will also clarify the responsibilities of all parties, so that the development of low-altitude economy will be gradually promoted and developed in an orderly manner.
New quality productivity sets the basic disk
Low-altitude economic application scenarios are rich, including both traditional general aviation formats and low-altitude production services supported by drones. By the end of 2023, there were 689 navigation enterprises in China, 3,173 registered general-purpose aircraft and 451 general-purpose airports, with an annual operating flight of 1.357 million hours, with an average annual growth rate of over 12% in the past three years. In terms of drones, there are nearly 20,000 operating enterprises, with 1.267 million domestic registered drones, up by 32.2% in 2023 and flying 23.11 million hours, up by 11.8%.
"Low-altitude economy is widely used in industry, agriculture, service industry and other fields, and plays an important role in building a modern industrial system. It is a new track for industrial development and a new engine for economic growth, which has become the consensus of the government, industry and enterprises." Jiang Chunshui, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and secretary of the Party Committee of East China Regional Administration of Civil Aviation, said.
The new track opened by the new engine is due to the low-altitude economy expanding the scope of economic activities to three-dimensional space. As a new quality productivity, the long industrial chain of low-altitude economy includes new aircraft manufacturing, open low-altitude airspace flight, and new infrastructure construction and operation guarantee, which leads to a new low-altitude service industry. This requires not only a revolutionary breakthrough in technology, but also an innovative allocation of production factors, and also a deep transformation and upgrading of the industry. Chen Qianwen, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of Shenzhen CPPCC, believes that low-altitude economy is an important embodiment of the implementation of new quality productivity in the development of science and technology industry. "The low-altitude economy covers a wide range of industrial chains, involving policy formulation, application scenario expansion and efficient coordination of all links in the industrial chain."
New scenes such as "flying" and "take-away" have driven tens of thousands of enterprises to gather and cooperate, resulting in dozens of new occupations, and new opportunities are constantly emerging, which has injected strong development momentum into the leap of laborers, labor materials, labor objects and their optimized combinations. Chen Zhangming, deputy to the National People’s Congress, vice chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Jiu San Society and deputy mayor of Zigong Municipal People’s Government, put forward more possibilities for the development of low-altitude economy in the proposal "Accelerating the construction of standards and approving pilots to promote the high-quality development of low-altitude economy": power line inspection, port inspection, forest fire prevention, land surveying and mapping, environmental protection, logistics and distribution …
There are many new application scenarios brought by new quality productivity. Only by trying first and adapting to local conditions can we sort out the "clue" for low-altitude economic take-off. Zhang Chengwei, deputy to the National People’s Congress, secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of Power Science and Technology Bureau Bowei, suggested that with the strong support of relevant departments, the system, mechanism, process and key technical issues should be solved through pilot projects to create a pilot model of low-altitude economy.
Take the characteristic road according to local conditions
How to lead the low-altitude economy, a new high-quality productivity and a new growth pole of economic development? The answer is to develop according to local conditions.
In December 2023, "Several Measures for Shenzhen to Support High-quality Development of Low-altitude Economy" was officially promulgated, and 20 specific support measures were put forward to promote the high-quality development of Shenzhen’s low-altitude economy. By the end of 2023, there were 1,730 UAVs and industrial chain enterprises actually operating in Shenzhen, with an annual output value of 96 billion yuan, an increase of 28%; A total of 126 low-altitude routes have been opened for UAVs, and 89 take-off and landing points for UAVs have been built. In 2023, more than 600,000 UAVs carried cargo and made comprehensive application flights. Combined with the Regulations of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on the Promotion of Low-altitude Economy Industry and other innovative low-altitude economic development mechanisms, it has provided experience for other regions to develop low-altitude economy.
Low-altitude economy is "better said than done". On this new track, all localities are racing.
In April 2023, the first normalized commercial route of Meituan UAV in Shanghai was officially launched in Jinshan District, making "UAV delivery" the norm; As the first pilot reform of global low-altitude airspace management approved in China, Hunan Province has integrated the low-altitude economy into the tourism industry, based on building the "Great Southern Hunan" mountainous area and air sports industrial cluster; In Hainan, after the reform of low-altitude airspace and refined airspace management, low-altitude economic industries such as low-altitude tourism, emergency rescue and oil and gas platform operation have ranked among the top in the country. The urban logistics distribution in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and the inspection and management of the Yangtze River waterway in Nanjing, Jiangsu … Low-altitude economy began to glow in all regions. Zhang Ying, member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and director of the Shanghai Economic and Information Committee, suggested that local governments should actively respond to local conditions and promote the implementation of specific policies.
How to selectively promote the development of new industries, new models and new kinetic energy brought by low-altitude economy, and promote the high-end, intelligent and green related industries with new technologies are the topics that all regions have to face in developing low-altitude economy. Wang Lifeng, deputy to the National People’s Congress and vice president of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said: "It is suggested to give full play to the advantages of relevant universities and research institutes in low-altitude Zhilian and other professional fields, gather alliance forces, jointly explore the road of low-altitude economic and industrial development, and continue to promote the integration and innovation of low-altitude economic technology and industry, so that the low-altitude economy can’ fly’ higher and further."
In the proposal of promoting the application of flying cars put forward by He Xiaopeng, deputy to the National People’s Congress and chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, flying cars need cooperation when they are built and fly; In the proposal of Ji Ruidong, deputy to the National People’s Congress, secretary of the Shen Fei Party Committee and chairman of the aviation industry, to realize the commercial integration of manned and unmanned aircraft at an early date, the integration of manned and unmanned aircraft requires cooperation. In the low-altitude economy, a track with a long industrial chain and a wide radiation range, cooperation is king. Wu Ximing, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and vice president of China Aviation Research Institute, said that the central and local governments should cooperate to build low-altitude economic demonstration cooperation projects, promote the integrated development of low-altitude economy and other industries, improve quality and efficiency, and comprehensively promote the high-quality development of low-altitude economy.
In the near future, the "20 articles" that are in line with local resources endowment, industrial base and scientific research conditions will emerge continuously, and the low-altitude economy will also play an increasingly important role in promoting economic development, strengthening social security and serving national defense. (China Civil Aviation News reporter Zhang Renyin)
For more exciting contents of the 2024 NPC and CPPCC, please pay attention to the topic "Focus on the NPC and CPPCC in 2024" of China Civil Aviation Network. (Click "Read the original" to view)
Original title: "Focus of the two sessions | Low-altitude economy: emerging new quality and new vitality of generate"