Is it really necessary to relocate just because of the "chemical" label? In interviews, China Chemical Industry News reporters felt that only by answering these questions well can the relocation of chemical enterprises truly achieve its goals, enabling companies to improve themselves through relocation and thus coexist harmoniously with society.

  Where to move? How to move?

  Jiangsu has numerous chemical enterprises, and the relocation of these companies started very early, tracing back to nine years ago. Qin Zhiqiang, president of the Jiangsu Chemical Industry Association, told China Chemical Industry News that since the provincial government initiated a special campaign to regulate chemical production enterprises in 2006, the relocation of chemical enterprises in Jiangsu has never stopped. The general trend is moving from southern Jiangsu to northern Jiangsu, from along the river to the coast, and from within the province to outside the province. Therefore, relocation is not a new normal for Jiangsu's chemical enterprises, but an "old normal."

  However, recently, some chemical enterprises in Jiangsu have called reporters to express their distress caused by relocation.

  "At the end of 2012, the Qidong City Chemical Industry Regulation Office held a meeting, and in 2013, Qidong City issued a document requiring that by the end of 2014, all chemical enterprises outside the industrial parks, except for very large enterprises, must be closed. But they never told us what to transition to or where the way out is. After the Tianjin Port explosion, the external situation became even more tense, and the Qidong municipal government assigned the task of shutting down enterprises to the town government. But we can't afford to relocate because of financial constraints. Despite multiple negotiations with the town government, they replied that there is no funding for buybacks or subsidies. We can't even afford to pay bank interest now and have had to sell some equipment. But entering the Qidong Chemical Industrial Park requires an investment of over 100 million yuan, and with no relocation subsidies from the municipal government, the company can only wait to close. Although we are a small enterprise, our equipment is worth several million yuan, and our product, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, is basically pollution-free in production," Shi Jianhui, chairman of Qidong Luyuan Fine Chemical Co., Ltd., told reporters. "Now there are still eight or nine enterprises around us like ours whose shutdown and transition issues have not been resolved. Zhenjiang Danyang City also belongs to Jiangsu Province, but they provide compensation for the shutdown and transition of chemical enterprises and help them find a way out."

  In the materials he provided, reporters saw that Danyang City did not simply "shut down" chemical enterprises but formulated and issued opinions and subsidy methods for rewarding and compensating the shutdown, transition, and relocation of chemical production enterprises based on the actual situation of existing chemical production enterprises. This includes compensation for equipment, land, and property, as well as economic policies for employee resettlement, transition, and progress rewards, helping to guide chemical production enterprises in shutdown, transition, and relocation.

  "Our relocation funding issue has been resolved because we are close to the main urban area, and according to policy, we received several hundred million yuan in relocation compensation. The main difficulty now is the relocation site selection. We might move to areas with resource or energy advantages, such as the west, but such regions also have market limitations, such as increased transportation radius and costs. Currently, the company is conducting some preliminary investigations and plans to develop high-value-added products in the future," the head of a chemical enterprise in Changshou, Chongqing, told reporters.

  In fact, the problems reflected by these enterprises in relocation are exactly the headaches for some enterprises preparing to relocate, namely, where to move? How to move to improve oneself rather than moving to death? Where does the funding come from? What role should the government play in relocation?

  At the recent "Chemical Enterprise Diagnosis and Relocation and Transformation" meeting held by the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute, the head of the chemical enterprise in Changshou, Chongqing, said he gained some insights and inspiration.

  According to reporters, under the national push for chemical enterprise relocation, the number of enterprises, parks, design institutes, and even representatives from local environmental protection bureaus attending the "Chemical Enterprise Diagnosis and Relocation and Transformation" meeting exceeded the organizers' expectations, so many representatives had to sit in the corridor. They had too many questions about how to better relocate that needed answers.

  "In the process of urban expansion, old suburbs continuously become new urban areas, prompting chemical enterprises to continuously move from old suburbs to new suburbs. The history of China's urbanization is also a history of chemical enterprise relocation and transformation. However, the simple horizontal relocation of existing industries is undoubtedly a disaster for chemical enterprises. Therefore, we should study the relocation and transformation models of chemical enterprises from the perspective of promoting industrial upgrading and optimizing industrial layout," said Zhang Fang, assistant to the president of the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute.

  Bai Yi, vice president of the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute, told reporters that enterprise relocation is a huge systematic project that requires the joint efforts of the government, enterprises, and parks to complete.

  First, enterprises should not be relocated in a cloning manner. Successful relocation has several models, one of which is upgrading relocation, which improves the enterprise's industrial level and upgrades the original backward process technology during relocation.

  The second is expansion relocation. From originally producing only one or two types of products, through relocation, it expands to multiple products to meet different market demands and enhance the enterprise's ability to cope with market risks.

  The third is diversified model relocation. During the relocation process, the original single enterprise independent construction model is broken, and diversified financing and diversified combination methods are adopted to establish a new enterprise, improving the original capital structure.

  "The above are all progressive relocations. But the biggest problem during the relocation process is to first build a new enterprise and then relocate the original old enterprise. Building a new enterprise requires initial capital investment, so where does this capital come from? This is what many enterprises find troublesome now. If it is near a big city, the relocating enterprise can use the original land as collateral to obtain some capital support. But some enterprises' land is not very valuable, so the initial construction capital injection requires financial or bank support. Now some banks have started capital operations to support relocating enterprises, solving their upgrading and capital investment issues during relocation, allowing them to build new enterprises first and then shut down the original ones. This is a 'hurdle' that all enterprises must overcome. Only after overcoming this 'hurdle' can they enter a new cycle system. In addition, the government's support policies must be in place to help enterprises embark on a benign relocation development path, not a relocation disappearance path," Bai Yi emphasized.

  Is the capacity of chemical parks sufficient?

  Reporters found in their research that although the country is actively promoting it, and chemical enterprises are either actively or passively wanting to enter parks, the management of some chemical parks is not standardized, and their capacity is not optimistic.

  According to incomplete statistics from the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute, by 2014, there were more than 850 chemical parks (or chemical industry concentration areas) in China, of which about 260 were approved by provincial and higher-level government departments, accounting for only about 30% of all levels and types of chemical parks. Most chemical enterprises have already entered parks for development. However, the overall development level of national chemical parks is still relatively low, especially the development of provincial-level and below chemical parks is still very irregular.

  Qin Zhiqiang pointed out that enterprises now face several problems when entering parks. First, the existing park capacity cannot bear it. Taking Jiangsu Province as an example, Jiangsu is a province that started building chemical parks relatively early. Currently, there are 58 chemical parks recognized by the provincial and municipal governments, and there are more than 4,000 large-scale chemical enterprises in the province. Nearly 40% of these enterprises have already entered parks, and the economic output of these 58 chemical parks accounts for nearly 50% of the total economic output of the chemical industry in Jiangsu Province. However, the capacity and land area of the parks are also limited, so most chemical parks in the province can no longer accommodate the relocation of chemical production enterprises into the parks.

  Second, the parks themselves also face many problems. In the past, some parks were established mainly for investment attraction, and the enterprises introduced at that time had some product duplication, backward equipment, low-end technology, and serious pollution. Now everyone realizes this problem, so many parks are re-sorting and standardizing the enterprises in the parks, raising the standards and thresholds for entry, and improving corresponding environmental protection and safety policies according to current policies.

  "Now there is another big problem. In the past, parks were designed and planned according to the 'Code for Fire Protection Design of Buildings' (referred to as the 'Building Code'). After 2014, the 'Code for Fire Protection Design of Petrochemical Enterprises' (referred to as the 'Petrochemical Code') was issued, which is stricter and more demanding than the 'Building Code'. This has made many parks and enterprises within them feel at a loss. Because the land within the parks was already planned, but the 'Petrochemical Code' requires much larger distances and spacing than the 'Building Code'. For example, the 'Building Code' required a distance of 100 meters between workshops or devices, while the 'Petrochemical Code' requires 200 meters. But the enterprises' workshops were built according to the 100-meter standard during approval, and now they have to be inspected according to the 200-meter standard, causing infrastructure such as workshops to be unusable due to non-compliance with standards, and enterprises within the parks cannot operate normally, so they can only wait. This phenomenon is widespread in chemical parks, and everyone has strong reactions to it. Especially after the implementation of the 'Petrochemical Code', a considerable part of the park's land cannot be used as production land but only as isolation zones and spacing zones. The original park planning has been disrupted, and the park area has become even tighter, making it even more unable to accommodate new enterprises," Qin Zhiqiang said.

  In addition to the park capacity not meeting the needs, some parks also have low management levels and unclear positioning.

  Li Daxue from the Economic Office of Zhonglan Lianhai Design and Research Institute pointed out: "Some domestic chemical parks initially only cared about attracting projects and enterprises paying taxes, regardless of what products were produced or whether there were upstream and downstream relationships between enterprises. The management level of the parks was very low. Until one day they clarified functional zones and decided that some enterprises did not meet the functional zone planning, they asked the enterprises to move. What enterprises fear most is the constant change in park positioning, which is the consequence of extensive investment attraction."

  Gu Zongqin, president of the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute, said that there are currently about 850 chemical parks in China, including those mainly or partially focused on chemicals. The quantity and quality are too many and too poor. Many places have multiple chemical parks in one area, so-called one area with multiple parks. They divide land, form a team, and hang a sign, and it becomes a park, mainly for investment attraction. Among so many chemical parks in China, some are indeed doing well, such as those in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Ningbo, but a large part urgently needs standardization, some have very unclear positioning, and have not considered follow-up issues, which is also very unfavorable for future enterprise relocation into parks.

  Bai Yi said that now the whole country requires chemical enterprises to enter parks, but the parks' ability to accept enterprises has not yet reached the satisfaction needed for enterprises to achieve their own development. Enterprises hope that the public utilities and supporting facilities of the parks are already in place, and they only need to build the main devices and then can immediately enter normal production. But the level of many parks has not yet met the requirements of enterprises, and even some parks have just formed a geographical concept, with truly professional management and supporting facilities not yet in place. As a result, enterprises have to invest additional funds to build supporting projects after entering, affecting their construction costs and economic efficiency, leading to low enthusiasm for entering parks. Therefore, how to make park construction more efficient and standardized, and effectively receive chemical enterprises, is the top priority for chemical parks.

  "After the '8·12' explosion, the country attached great importance to enterprise relocation into parks, but this is an external condition. The park itself must do a good job and be able to meet the conditions to accept enterprises. Otherwise, even if enterprises are ready, if the park's conditions are not met, it won't work," Bai Yi emphasized.

  According to reporters, Guo Shunxian, director of the Dongying Municipal Economic and Information Commission in Shandong Province, recently brought some local park heads to Bai Yi, asking her to help "diagnose" more than a dozen local chemical parks, such as which parks meet the conditions and can achieve upgrading development; which parks need to control scale, aiming to determine the park levels and ensure that enterprises to be relocated can choose independently.

  "If the park threshold is not high, there will be follow-up problems. Therefore, we suggest that parks also raise industrial thresholds, implement industry-oriented investment attraction, guide enterprises to enter parks to develop green and high-end industries, and improve the utilization efficiency of various resources and energy in the parks," Bai Yi said.

  Is it necessary to relocate just because of the "chemical" label?

  After the Tianjin Port explosion, local governments were very anxious, measuring the losses caused by the explosion, which were far greater than the relocation of some enterprises, so they realized that if relocation is needed, it is better to relocate early than late. This prompted the large-scale relocation of domestic chemical enterprises. In interviews with reporters, experts such as Bai Yi emphasized that in enterprise relocation, a problem must be avoided: enterprises that do not meet the relocation conditions and should not relocate should not blindly relocate.

  Bai Yi said that the Tianjin Port explosion put great pressure on the government. But under pressure, everyone should also judge clearly and not rush to relocate. Therefore, we need to scientifically, reasonably, and rationally handle the contradiction between enterprise and urban development. We must first strictly implement environmental protection laws and regulations, do a good job in enterprise management, ensure measures, management, and responsibilities are in place, and achieve intrinsic safety. If safety still cannot be guaranteed under these conditions, then discuss relocation.

  Bai Yi emphasized that enterprise relocation is a last resort. When enterprise production and operation conflict with urban development, governments at all levels must first scientifically determine whether the enterprise needs to relocate. If it is indeed necessary, consider how to ensure that the enterprise can develop better through relocation, urge the enterprise to conduct industrial diagnosis, formulate a relocation plan, encourage industrial upgrading or product chain expansion model relocation, study and implement supporting conditions to ensure the sustainable development of the enterprise after relocation, so that the enterprise should get better after relocation, not fall into a predicament. Once the enterprise's production and operation have problems, it will also put pressure on society.

  Secondly, the original intention of local governments is also to hope that enterprises have better development space after relocation. But enterprise relocation is not a simple matter and should have a complete and rigorous execution procedure to help enterprises embark on the path of relocation and upgrading development.

  "Because the three types of industrial land needed for chemical enterprise development are often already planned in urban planning, the surrounding areas of such land are strictly not the focus of urban development, and urban construction must stay away from the areas of three types of land. If the enterprise layout is already in the three types of land, and later urban construction approaches the industrial area, which is now common, it needs to be carefully summarized and properly resolved, and more stringent and scientific norms should be proposed for future development," Bai Yi told reporters. In a city, industry and people's social life must coexist, not a relationship of "either you or me." This requires governments at all levels to coordinate various relationships and interests according to relevant norms, not simply decide who stays and who does not.

  Li Daxue said: "In fact, the enthusiasm for enterprise relocation is not high now. For example, a chemical enterprise in Jiangsu, the government has long planned a new location, but the enterprise is unwilling to move and still produces at the original site. Because the enterprise feels wronged, when I built the factory, this place met the planning at that time, and the government changed the planning, so it's not my fault. But the government believes that the current planning is a chess game and must follow the chess game. I feel that the government's planning lacks foresight and did not consider the rapid urbanization, which is a problem that the government must pay attention to in future planning."

  Qin Zhiqiang also emphasized, why must chemical production enterprises relocate? This is first a misunderstanding of chemical production enterprises. The country always believes that chemical parks and chemical concentration areas are the only platforms for chemical industry development, which is actually wrong. In fact, many of our chemical production enterprises have no pollutant emissions, especially those non-basic raw material production enterprises. As a result, now, as soon as the word "chemical" is mentioned, enterprises are forced to relocate.

  Secondly, in theory, all safety and environmental protection issues in chemical production are controllable. The reason why some problems have arisen now is that our management and technology are not in place, and these can also be improved. There are so many large chemical enterprises abroad in the middle of cities, integrated with residential areas, how did they do it? Some of our enterprises have not done well, but you cannot think that the industry cannot do well, these are two concepts. So now I think it is a misunderstanding to simply use relocation to solve the problem of chemical production enterprises coexisting with the people. The most critical thing is to let chemical production enterprises essentially do a good job in environmental protection and safety. If done well, our enterprises can naturally integrate into this social environment. Why must enterprises be forced to relocate? Now many local government leaders come up with relocation ideas at the drop of a hat, without thinking about anything else, which is the inaction and misaction of government administration. After the Tianjin incident, everyone is afraid of taking responsibility, so they just relocate. In fact, do you think