The reasons why Dalian's development has stagnated: declining economic development, serious population loss, and a decline in the city's image.

I. Economic development decline

Dalian used to be the economic center of northern China, but in recent years, Dalian's economic growth rate began to slow down. Data shows that Dalian's GDP growth rate was only 2.6 percent in 2018, far below the national average.

Dalian's economic transformation has not been smooth, with traditional industries such as heavy industry and chemical industry having an increasing impact on the environment, the construction and real estate markets being seriously bubbly, and high-tech industries not yet forming a scale advantage, among other factors constraining Dalian's economic development.

Two, serious population loss

Dalian's population has been losing since 2012, and at the end of 2018, the city's household population stood at about 6.7 million people, which is equivalent to the 2011 level. This also means that Dalian has a huge problem in attracting talent and maintaining a young population. At the same time, Dalian is also facing the problem of aging due to issues such as pensions and social security.

The reasons for the population loss are many, including a downturn in economic development, a lack of public **** services, a polluted natural environment and a lack of an innovative environment to attract talent.

Third, the decline of the city's image

Dalian used to be a rich and beautiful city, but the city's image has suffered a great deal due to urban management problems.

Street garbage, traffic congestion, the reduction of blue sky and green space, the restaurant industry and other vices have given the whole city an unpleasant impression. Against the backdrop of such an image, it is difficult to attract outside investment and talent to the city, which has led to Dalian's weakening momentum.

Overview of economic development:

In 2022, Dalian's investment in fixed assets (excluding farms) grew by 6.5 percent over the previous year. Among them, investment in construction projects increased by 28.8 percent, while investment in real estate development decreased by 16.5 percent.

Sub-industry, the primary industry investment fell 7.1% over the previous year, the secondary industry investment growth of 10.5%, the tertiary industry investment growth of 5.1%. By economic type, state-controlled investment increased by 8.2% over the previous year, private investment increased by 7.2%, and foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan investment decreased by 0.7%.

Infrastructure investment increased by 28.4% over the previous year. The annual investment in high-tech industries increased by 24.0% over the previous year, of which the investment in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech services increased by 6.0% and 97.0% respectively.

In 2022, Dalian City newly registered 119,100 market entities, an increase of 7.83 percent over the previous year. Among them, 45,000 newly registered enterprises, an increase of 0.8%; 73,900 new individual business households, an increase of 12.66%. At the end of the year, the total number of market entities in the city was 906,600, an increase of 6.46% over the end of the previous year. The annual urban employment of 123,000 people.

Supporting entrepreneurial leaders 2,475 people, driving employment of 13,000 people. Annual consumer prices rose 2.2 percent over the previous year. Among them, the price of consumer goods rose 3.1 percent, service prices rose 0.8 percent.