The recent economic development of China’s ‘million’ cities

Since the 1980’s, two new trends have been emerging in the economic development of the Chinese ‘million’ cities. One is the development disparity, and the other is the industrial restructuring. Firstly, in terms of per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product), 32 ‘million’ cities are classified into 4 types. The paper thinks there are 3 main causes which bring about the development disparity. Then, the paper approaches the industrial restructuring of the ‘million’ cities. In order to shrink the gap between the coastal ‘million’ cities and the interior ‘million’ cities, the paper thinks that the central government should pay most attention to the economic development of the inland, meanwhile, the interior ‘million’ cities should speed up the economic reform and industrial restructuring.     

The Evolution and Differentiation of Economic Convergence of Resource-based Cities in Northeast China

A key target of the overall strategy implementation for regional development since the 18th Party Congress of China has involved taking measures to narrow regional disparities. This is because resource-based cities' economic development has fallen below general levels due to resource exhaustion and an unbalanced industrial structure, among other factors. Further, an economic gap has long existed between Northeast China's large number of resource-based cities and non-resource-based cities. This article comprehensively studies the economic convergence of Northeast China's resource-based cities and non-resource-based cities from 1996 to 2015 by using a dynamic panel to analyze not only the economic development of different industries and types of cities, but also the main factors that influence economic development. The empirical results demonstrate that economic convergence exists in both resource-based and non-resource-based cities, but the economic gap between them has clearly narrowed since the implementation of a strategy to revitalize the Northeast's old industrial base. Shrinking cities are the fastest to converge, as mature cities are slower and regenerating cities are the slowest; regarding industry structure, the secondary industry dominates the economy in mature and shrinking cities, and the tertiary industry in regenerating cities. The primary stimulus in resource-based cities' economic development involves upgrading the industrial structure and investing in human capital. As China faces a ‘new normal' economy, resource-based cities in Northeast China should restructure the economy and perfect their market system to avoid again widening the economic gap.     

A new perspective on China’s industrial development strategy

At present China is facing challenges from economic globalization, ecological economy and knowledge economy in its process of economic development. The following ideas may be heuristic in establishing China’s regional development strategies: 1) In locating industries, the impact of industries on the eco-environment should be fully considered. 2) Industrial restructuring should be focused on the restructuring of products, not on the restructuring of the three traditional industries (primary, secondary and tertiary industries). 3) The establishment of key industries should be focused on large-scale corporations or famous brand products, not on a particular industrial sector. 4) The complementarity and cooperation between the east and the west of China should be on products and markets, not on natural resources. The advantages in natural resources for the west of China can not be over-estimated. The advantages in products and market potentials for the west of China may be explored.     

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON CHINA'S INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

１　ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＮｏｗａｄａｙｓｔｈｅｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔｏｆｗｏｒｌｄｉｎｄｕｓｔｒｉｅｓａｎｄｅｃｏｎｏｍｙｉｓｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｉｓｔｉｃｏｆａｆｅｗｃｏｎｓｐｉｃｕｏｕｓｔｒｅｎｄｓｗｈｉｃｈｍａｙｃｈａｌｌｅｎｇｅｔｒａｄｉｔｉｏｎａｌｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔｍｏｄｅｌｓａｎｄｔｈｅｏｒｉｅｓ．Ｆｉｒｓｔｏｆａｌｌ，ｔｈｅｅｃｏｎｏｍｙｏｆｔｈｅｗｏｒｌｄｈａｓｂｅｅｎｂｅｃｏｍｉｎｇｉｎｇｌｏｂａｌｓｐａｃｅ，ｏｆｗｈｉｃｈｔｈｅｒｅｍａｒｋａｂｌｅｉ…     

Measurement and spatial distribution of urban agglomeration industrial compactness in China

Urban agglomeration （UA） compactness means spatial concentration degree of physical entities, such as cities （towns）, industries, resources, funds, traffic and technologies, whose concentration is formed according to specified economic and technologic association in the process of UA formation and development. The UA industrial compactness means the concentration degree of industry and industry clusters with reference to the industrial, technological and economic relations among the cities in the UA in the process of rational industrial division and with the extension of industrial chain. After analyzing the researches on compactness, this paper finds that the relevant measurement coefficient and methods reflecting industrial geographical concentration fail to link industries spatial concentration with urban spatial concentration. Taking 23 UAs as samples and classifying them by development degree, this paper probes into UA compactness and spatial distribution characteristics from the perspective of industry by adopting UA index systems of industry and measurement models. The research finds out： 1） there is obvious positive correlation between UA industrial compactness and UA development degree; 2） the spatial distribution difference of UA industrial compactness is relatively great; and 3） UA industrial compactness shows a gradually decreasing tendency from the eastern part, the middle part to the western part of China. From the research thoughts and approaches, this article suggests that studies on the UA integrated compactness measurement should be enhanced from a multidimensional per- spective involving space, traffic, population density and so on.     

NEW PATTERNS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA

1　ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＣｉｔｙｐｌａｙｓａｎｉｍｐｏｒｔａｎｔｒｏｌｅｉｎｔｈｅｐｒｏｃｅｓｓｏｆｒｅ ｇｉｏｎａｌｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔ .Ｆｏｒｉｎｓｔａｎｃｅ ,ｉｎ 1996,ｔｈｅｔｏｔａｌｍｕｎｉｃｉｐａｌａｒｅａｓｏｆ 666ｃｉｔｉｅｓｏｎｌｙｃｏｖｅｒｅｄｔｈｅｐｒｏｐｏｒｔｉｏｎｏｆ 18.12ｐｅｒｃｅｎｔｉｎｎａｔｉｏｎａｌｔｅｒｒｉｔｏｒｙ ,ａｎｄｂｕｉｌｔ ｕｐａｒｅａ 1.8ｐｅｒｃｅｎｔ .Ｂｕｔｔｈｅｙｐｒｏｄｕｃｅｄｔｈｅ 68.63ｐｅｒｃｅｎｔｏｆＧＤＰ(ＧｒｏｓｓＤｏ…     

Growth of new economic sectors in second-tier extended cities in the Changjiang River Delta

The second-tier extended metropolises in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta, including Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou near Shanghai, are becoming the most active and new innovative industrial agglomerating areas. Manufacturing industries in these second-tier cities have been in rapid growth due to increasing foreign investment. Nevertheless, the economic prospect of these cities is still constrained by a lack of local R&D capacity and production services, which are mainly dependent upon Shanghai. This paper analyses the impact of globalization on the new economic sectors in these cities, the change of industrial structure, the limitation of urban development and the problem of sustainability. Then, the paper analyses the conditions for the high-tech industry and production services in these areas. Also, it applies the industrial organization theory to these cities and examines how these cities can cooperate with each other in terms of horizontal linkages. Finally, the paper gives the future growth prospects in high-tech industry and production services. Foundation item: Under the auspices of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40371031) Biography: CHEN Wen (1967–), female, a native of Ningde of Fujian Province, professor, specialized in urban economic and urban geography. E-mail: wchen@niglas.ac.cn     

湛江区域经济发展与挑战

比较分析了湛江与广东部分地区和全国沿海开放城市的经济发展状况,认为湛江区域经济发展面临着发挥相对优势的机遇,外部竞合的压力,以及改善投资环境和争取充足的资金等提升内部经济的挑战。     

Basic characteristics, spatial disparity and its major influencing factors of service industry in China

Based on the analysis of its basic characteristics, this article investigated the disparities of Chinese service industry among the three regions (the eastern China, the western China and the middle China) and inter-provincial disparities of that in the three regions by Theil coefficient and cluster analysis. Then, major factors influencing its spatial disparity were explored by correlation analysis and regression analysis. The conclusions could be drawn as follows. 1) The development of Chinese service industry experienced three phases since the 1980s: rapid growth period, slow growth period, and recovery period. From the proportion of value-added and employment, its development was obviously on the low level. From the composition of industrial structure, traditional service sectors were dominant, but modern service sectors were lagged. Moreover, its spatial disparity was distinct. 2) The level of Chinese service industry was divided into five basic regional ranks: well-developed, developed, relatively-developed, underdeveloped and undeveloped regions. As a whole, the overall structure of spatial disparity was steady in 1990–2005. But there was notable gradient disparity in the interior structure of service industry among different provinces. Furthermore, the overall disparity expanded rapidly in 1990–2005. The inter-provincial disparity of service industry in the three regions, especially in the eastern China, was bigger than the disparity among the three regions. And 3) the level of economic development, the level of urban development, the scale of market capacity, the level of transportation and telecommunication, and the abundance of human resources were major factors influencing the development of Chinese service industry.     

CHINA＇S REGIONAL DISPARITY IN 1981-2000：OPENNESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF NON-STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES AND FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION

While China‘s economic growth has been impressive since 1978, regional disparity in terms of provincial per capita GDP has been increasing. On the other hand, this rapid but uneven growth was accompanied by China‘s deepening openness and structural reforms including the development of non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and fiscal decentralization. Based on quantitative analyses, this paper tries to explore the features of regional disparity in China and the relationships between regional growth and China‘s openness and economic structure reforms in the period from 1981 to 2000, The paper finds that the catching-up of the coastal region to the initially rich provinces, which are mainly located in inland areas, brought about a convergence of the growth pattern across provinces in the 1980s. The subsequent divergence in the provincial growth rates between the coast and the interior generated an enlarging regional disparity in China in the 1990s. The ever-faster growth in the coastal region was benefited by China‘s openness and the development of non-state-owned enterprises. The development of non-state-owned enterprises underlies the higher operational efficiency in the coastal region. Additionally, with the insignificant regression results, fiscal decentralization was observed to facilitate faster growth in the coast region. The findings justify the initiative of the “West Region Development Strategy“ and offer some policy implications for China.     

TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DIFFERENCES OF THE INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING OF GUANGDONG PROVINCE IN THE 1990S

１　ＣＨＡＮＧＥＳＯＦＩＮＤＵＳＴＲＩＡＬＳＴＲＵＣＴＵＲＥ１．１　ＣｈａｎｇｅｓｏｆＳｔｒｕｃｔｕｒｅｏｆＴｈｒｅｅＥｃｏｎｏｍｉｃＳｅｃｔｏｒｓＳｉｎｃｅｔｈｅｒｅｆｏｒｍｏｆｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃｓｙｓｔｅｍａｎｄｏｐｅｎｉｎｇｔｏｔｈｅｏｕｔｓｉｄｅｗｏｒｌｄｉｎｔｈｅｌａｔｅ１９７０ｓ，ｔｈｅｉｎｄｕｓｔｒｉａｌｓｔｒｕｃｔｕｒｅｏｆＧｕａｎｇｄｏｎｇＰｒｏｖｉｎｃｅｈａｓｂｅｅｎｅｘｐｅｒｉｅｎｃｉｎｇａｎｏｂｖｉｏｕｓｐｒｏｃｅｓｓｏｆｎｏｎａｇｒｉｃｕｌｔｕｒａｌｉｚａｔｉｏｎｗ…     

New perspectives on restructuring of old industrial areas in China: A critical review and research agenda

The restructuring of old industrial areas has been receiving much attention in regional development studies both in industrialized and emerging economies. Although ample Chinese-speaking studies have been published on the topic, most of them suffer from paying too little attention to dynamic multi-scalar interactions between firms, institutions, policies and places, as well as a too strong focus on individual cases. They also mostly disregard internationally recognized concepts and theories in the field. Based on these internationally recognized modern concepts, this paper therefore puts forward some potential avenues for future research on the evolution of old industrial areas in China, which should overcome existing deficits in the Chinese-speaking literature. It suggests that some evolutionary economic geography concepts such as path dependence, lock-in, path creation, relatedness, as well as multi-scalar institutional and leadership approaches have useful potentials to better understand the evolutionary processes and mechanisms of old industrial areas in China.     

Empirical study on effect of industrial structure change on regional economic growth of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region

Based on the data of gross domestic product (GDP), industrial added value and the proportion of industrial employees from 2000 to 2008, this paper studies the effect of industrial structure change on the regional economic growth of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region in China using the shift-share method. The results show that: 1) In the 21st century, the industrial output of three industries, namely, primary, secondary, and tertiary, and the GDP grew rapidly in the study period. The tertiary industry grew the fastest; it had the largest contribution to the GDP and meanwhile had become the most competitive industry in the metropolitan region. 2) The development of cities within the region was not balanced. Firstly, compared with Tianjin, Beijing, as one of the two core cities, was more rational in the industrial structure. Secondly, the surrounding eight cities, which are Shijiazhuang, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Langfang, Baoding, Cangzhou, Zhangjiakou, and Chengde, were all uncompetitive than the two core cities. 3) There was a great industrial gradient in the region (especially between the two core cities and the cities of Tangshan, Baoding, Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Cangzhou, and Langfang). As a result, it is foreseeable that the industry transfer in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region will be one of the trends in regional development, and the industry transfer is inevitably to promote the regional integration.     

Industrial transformation of Shenyang city

Industrial transformation represents a unique economic phenomenon in China‘s regional economy,and old industrial city reconstruction has long been a key problem that affects state security. As a typical old indus-trial city in China, Shenyang established its heavy industrial city position in the First Five-year Plan period (1953-1957), and this industrial structure has been consolidated for a long time. After 1978, Shenyang began its long last-ing industrial reconstruction in an all-round way by 3 main initiatives including restructuring economic system, up-grading traditional industrial technology and developing high-tech industry. In the end of the 1990s, it could be i-dentified that remarkable structural changes took place in city economy at large as well as individual industrial sec-tor. According to the GDP proportion change, Shenyang is on the way to a high level industrial structure. The sec-ondary industry also engendered significant shifting as smelting and textile industry declined sharply but IT industry increased largely. Although the ratio of the heavy industry to the light industry changed periodically, the heavy in-dustrial output value most time kept a high proportion over 60% of the gross industrial output value in the past five decades. Shenyang has favorable conditions for developing equipment manufacturing industry, but it should carry out the program by establishing its leading role in urban economy plan, building “Theme Industrial Parks“, improv-ing Tiexi Industrial Zone, removing any kind of system barrier, enlarging private and other ownerships economy and improving technology, marketing and management by IT application. In response to economy globalization,Shenyang needs to expand the cooperation worldwide and improve the cohesion with surrounding cities.     

ON DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE CITIES IN CHINA

ＯＮＤＥＶＥＬＯＰＭＥＮＴＯＦＬＡＲＧＥＣＩＴＩＥＳＩＮＣＨＩＮＡ￥ＣｕｉＧｏｎｇｈａｏ（崔功豪）（ＮａｎｊｉｎｇＵｎｉｖｅｒｓｉｔｙ，Ｎａｎｊｉｎｇ２１０００８，ＰＲＣ）Ａｂｓｔｒａｃｔ：ＴｈｅｌａｒｇｅｃｉｔｉｅｓｉｎＣｈｉｎａｈａｖｅｇｒｏｗｎ...     

Industrial agglomeration externalities,city size,and regional economic development: Empirical research based on dynamic panel data of 283 cities and GMM method

Local governments have long been ardently pursuing the industrial specialization effect (MAR externalities) and industrial diversification effect (Jacobs externalities). Such a pursuit has resulted in severe distortion of resource allocation and negative effect on sustainability of local economic development. Regarding the effect from both MAR and Jacobs externalities on local economic development existing literature records notable disputes. Therefore, for local economic development, one important issue is which externality (MAR or Jacobs) can better bring the effect into play. By studying a panel data of 283 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2012 and applying dynamic plane data GMM method, this paper conducted a regression analysis of the relationship among industrial agglomeration externalities, city size, and regional economic development. The result indicates that with regard to the whole nation, MAR externalities are conducive to regional economy development whereas Jacobs externalities will, to an extent, restrain regional economic development. As regards eastern, middle, and western regions, MAR externalities are conducive only to the economic development of the eastern region; their effects on middle and western regions are insignificant. Moreover, the interaction item between MAR externalities and city size has a significant negative synergistic effect on national economic development and a certain acceleration effect on eastern region as well as a strong negative synergistic effect on the middle region and an insignificant effect on the western region. The interaction item between Jacobs externalities and city size has a positive synergistic effect on only the middle region and has an insignificant synergistic effect on both eastern and western regions. Capital stock and labor input have significant accelerating effects on GDP growth per capita of Chinese cities, whereas material capital and labor input remain primary driving forces for Chinese local economic development. Furthermore, human capital contributes to accelerating urban economic development, whereas government intervention restrains urban economic development.     

Effects of the Northeast China Revitalization Strategy on Regional Economic Growth and Social Development

Measuring the economic and social effects of the Northeast China Revitalization Strategy is critical to addressing regional sustainable development in China. To shed light on this issue, an integrated perspective was adopted that is combined with the difference-in-differences method to measure the effects of the strategy on economic growth and social development in Northeast China. The findings suggest that the strategy has significantly improved regional economic growth and per-capita income by increasing its gross domestic product(GDP) and GDP per capita by 25.70% and 46.00%, respectively. However, the strategy has significantly worsened the regional employment in the secondary industry of the region. In addition, the strategy has not significantly improved regional infrastructural road, education investment or social security, and has had no significant effect on mitigating regional disparity. In addition, the policy effects are highly heterogeneous across cities based on city size and characteristics. Therefore, there is no simple answer regarding whether the Northeast China Revitalization Strategy has reached its original goals from an integrated perspective. The next phase of the strategy should emphasize improving research and development(RD) and human capital investments based on urban heterogeneity to prevent conservative path-dependency and the lock-in of outdated technologies.     

Applicability and prospect of China’s development zone model in Africa

Development zones have been an important spatial approach to promoting economic development since China's reform and opening-up. They have also been major contributors to the processes of China's industrialization and urbanization. Along with improvements in the worldwide industrial division of labor and the gradual implementation of China's development zones' Go Global strategy, it is necessary for Africa, a hot spot of global industrialization in recent years, to learn from China's development zone model. By attracting China's capital, technology and enterprises to Africa via Sino-African co-built development zones, a pattern of high complementarity and mutual development between China and Africa can be formed which does favor further improvement of the global industrial division of labor. In order to study the applicability and prospect of China's development zone model in Africa as per the above-mentioned international situation, this paper first sorts out the development course of China's development zones and discusses their roles in China's industrialization and urbanization. Subsequently, this paper analyzes the status quo of industrial development in Africa as a whole and the differences in industrial development between China and Africa, aiming to justify the timing of industrial transfer from China to Africa by constructing Sino-African co-built development zones. Lastly, this paper analyzes the current situation of six Sino-African co-built development zones by focusing on their operation modes, industry types and investment promotion models. In the authors' view, Sino-African co-built development zones can function as a new window of China-African cooperation, a new carrier of African industrialization, and a new engine of global industrial restructuring. China should adhere to the general principles of ‘Sino-African Integration, Multi-Cooperation, Mutual Benefit, Scientific Location, Systematic Planning, Cluster Growth and Open Development' in the planning and construction of development zones in Africa, effectively promoting Africa as the very important part of the global industry system.     

R／S AND WAVELET ANALYSIS ON EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC DISPARITY IN CHINA DURING PAST 50 YEARS

1INTRODUCTIONThere have been many literatures about the regional disparity of economic development in China since the late 1970s. Some scholars argue that disparity of re-gional development in China has been expanded since 1978, but others find it has reduced since 1978. The findings of some scholars show that the evolutionary process of the disparity of regional economic develop-ment in China follows the inverted U shape, but some others do not think so. What is the true tendency, and i…