Investment and regional development in Post-Mao China

This paper investigates China's changing investment systems, investment patterns and their impact on regional development. It reveals that the reforms have brought profound changes to Mao's investment system and investment allocation. Investment decentralization has given localities considerable autonomy and incentives in economic development. Budgetary investment has declined dramatically while enterprise funds, bank loans and foreign investment have increased significantly in China. An increasing amount of these new sources of fixed investment have been channeled to more profitable non-state sectors. In terms of regional changes, China's coastal provinces, particularly Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang have recorded more rapid investment growth and have much higher per capita investment than many interior provinces. In addition, investment in the coastal provinces relies less on the state and is more profitable than that in the poorer interior. The sectoral and regional unevenness of fixed investment has significantly contributed to the uneven regional development in China. This research also has important theoretical implications, as it shows that regional investment is neither a cumulative causation process nor a convergent process, but influenced greatly by government policy, local states and local conditions, and foreign capital. An analysis of these factors should improve the understanding of investment allocation and regional development, especially for the transition economy in which the control and capacity of the central state has declined, while local and global forces have emerged as equally important forces shaping spatial change.     

Capital accumulation and regional development in France

The paper examines the interlinked development of social process and spatial form in the analysis of the changing patterns of production and employment in France. A major hypothesis is that specific phases of capital accumulation are associated with the use and production of specific forms of spatial diferentiation, and that recent changes in the location of employment in France are connected with the transition from one stage of capitalist development to another. Thus the changing spatial pattern of agricultural employment is seen as part of the decay of petty commodity production and the intergration of family farming into a new capitalist agriculture. Similarly, spatial change in manufacturing employment is also a component of industrial restructuring, and the associated development of new infrastrucural and labour requirements. The French state is one element of these processes and the article concludes with a case study of the relationships between capital accumulation and regional policy.     

Cross-border regional development in Southern China

Cross-border zones have been developed rapidly in China since 1979. This was largely due to the global economic restructuring in the post-Fordist era. The enclave of Hong Kong plays an indispensable role in the process. While China adopts the Open Door Policy, factories in Hong Kong are quick to relocate to the Pearl River Delta region in order to benefit from the low production costs and other preferential policies. The paper first reviews the factors leading to the economic integration between Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region of southern China. It then examines the sectoral changes and the socio-economic data of the region. Rapid urbanization and rural urbanization are reflected in the quest for infrastructural development plans and the loss of quality farmland. They also bring along environmental hazards. The paper concludes with the call for a comprehensive development strategy for the region into the next century. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The regional development problems of Transcaucasia

This article examines the economic development of three distinctive republics (Georgian S.S.R., Armenian S.S.R., Azerbaydzhan S.S.R.) on the periphery of the U.S.S.R. Planned as three republican territorial production complexes, they have recently undergone considerable industrialization with growing integration of their economies. Increasingly urban, environmental and social problems associated with development have become more prominent in the planning process.     

Migration, remittances and regional development in Southern Morocco

Although Morocco has evolved into one of the world’s leading emigration countries, the systematic study of the developmental impact of migration in migrant-sending regions in Morocco and the Maghreb has been relatively neglected after a temporary surge of pessimistic studies in the 1970s. Empirical work from this region has therefore been largely absent from the lively theoretical debate on migration and development. This study attempts to re-establish this link through qualitative research and a survey among 507 non-migrant, internal and international migrant households in the Moroccan Todgha oasis. The study shows that international migration and remittances have significantly contributed to economic development, improved standards of living and enabled the partial emancipation of subaltern ethnic groups. International migrant households invest more than others in housing, agriculture and other enterprises. Risk spreading and income stabilisation rather than increasing incomes seem to be the prime rationale behind internal migration, although internal migration tends to facilitate the education and international migration of younger household members. Remittance expenditure and investments have stimulated the diversifying and urbanising regional economy and have triggered a counter-flow of “reverse” internal migration. However, several structural constraints prevent the high development potential of migration from being fully realised.     

The defence sector in British regional development

The aim of the paper is to provide an outline of the influence of defence expenditure on British regional development during the last one hundred years. This topic has not received much attention since defence expenditure on the armed forces is usually considered non-basic, whilst expenditure on equipment is concealed amongst many industries. There are also important spin-off effects from this expenditure. The paper shows that defence expenditure favours southern and eastern regions of Britain and thus reinforces spatial trends from other sectors of the British economy. In addition to these regional effects there are significant impacts on local economies.     

Power and influence tactics in the promotion of regional development: An empirical analysis of the work of Finnish regional development officers

Increased complexity and rapid pace of change demand more from people responsible for regional development at various levels of activity. This paper has its roots in a belief that the more complex situations are, the more regional development is dependent on the leadership and network management capacity of key individuals. Studying more deeply the roles that various individuals, and the coalitions formed by them, have in institutionalisation, deinstitutionalisation and reinstitutionalisation processes might provide us with additional analytical leverage in regional development studies. This paper focuses on diffuse networks of dispersed powers from a Finnish regional development officer’s point of view. Regional development officers are those people whose job it is to boost the economic development of their respective regions in Finland.The research questions discussed here are: (a) What kind of power is exercised by Finnish regional development officers; and (b) how do regional development officers aim to gain influence for their efforts to promote regional development? The empirical research is based on data gathered (a) through 41 interviews with Finnish actors responsible for the promotion of economic development in city governments, technology centres, regional development agencies, and ministries and other national bodies, and (b) through internet survey of development officers at local, regional and national levels (531 respondents, response rate 51.8%). The survey was designed to solicit information about power and influence tactics in the context of regional development. The empirical analysis shows, for example, how interpretive power and network power are more important for regional development officers than institutional and resource power, and how indirect influence tactics surpass direct tactics.     

Resource partitioning and regional development strategies in the Ecuadorian Amazon

This paper argues that the process of establishing claims and control over resources, referred to as resource partitioning, structures frontier societies in ways which impede subsequent efforts at rural development. Conflicts over claims to resources create divisions among local elites which prevent the formation of coalitions to promote development. Struggles for control over the flow of resources out of a region cause regional development agencies to pursue transportation policies which retard development by isolating the region from all but one commercial center. A case study of resource partitioning and rural development efforts in the Ecuadorian Amazon illustrates the argument.     

The regional structure of the turanian platform and its development

The major features of regional structure and development of the Turanian platform are the result of the interaction of basement block movements with surrounding mobile belts. Some specific features, typical of the geosynclinal stage, can also be observed in the intermediate and platform stages. These features include subdivision of region by linear and smooth brachyform structures and the more pronounced irregularity in development of the former compared with the latter.The position of the most mobile elements of the Turanian platform are observed to migrate. As the intensity of movements in South Tien Shan—Kysylkum Hercynian branch (in the basement) decreased and activity of the Alpine geosyncline and postplatform orogene increased, the most mobile zone moved from the central and southeastern parts of the platform towards the southern and eastern periphery.Changes in the rates of sedimentation and growth of the majority of regional structures of the Turanian platform have a tendency to occur in opposite senses. The time of general subsidence in the Cretaceous corresponds to a decrease of growth rate of many structures. General platform upheaval during the recent phase coincides with an increase of structural growth. In peripheral and central aulocogen parts of the platform, stabilized or activated during the Jurassic, similar variations of sedimentation and growth rates are observed.The minor mobility of the biggest uplifts in comparison with the downwarps (except for the recent phase) indicates the predominance of continuous, general extension of the Turanian platform with an increase in the role of compression in Oligocene—Quaternary time.An almost equal number of regional structures of the Turanian platform occur with respectively conformable and unconformable relationship between the tectonics of the basin floor and that of the Moho. Beneath the structures developed in the southwestern mobile part of the platform deep crustal tectonics is a result of a long period of deformation during platform and intermediate stages. In the stable northeastern part of the platform crustal deformation during the platform stage was insignificant. The crustal tectonics here is probably a relic of Paleozoic pre-platform development.     

新形势下的区域发展前景分析

从全球化发展的趋势出发,着重分析了我国区域发展和城市空间重构的内因。受全球化和城市化的影响,当代中国的大城市表现出不断追求国际化大都市的倾向。在空间形态方面,大城市之间的空间走廊正在形成,而且表现出强劲的扩展势头,继而形成了以大城市为核心的同城化现象。因此,从长远发展来看,国际大都市之间走廊空间(新城)将是未来区域发展最具投资潜力的地区。     

Technopoles, high-tech industries and regional development: A critical review

Technologies have played an important role in the restructuring of the productive system in the last quarter of the 20th century. The article looks at the macroeconomic context and at the transformation of the industrial organization. It then defines the concept of technopole. The author traces the principal elements of the different attempts of theorization with a critical angle, shows the logic of contemporary industry localisation, as well as the role of technopoles in regional development. Regional and industrial policy are then seen as the basis of the process of industrialization and of the technological transfer.     

Cattle development problems and programs in India: A regional analysis

India has the largest cattle production in the world. Generally, Indian cattle are considered to be of poor quality, and it is suggested that most of these animals are useful only for beef but for their religious significance to the Hindu majority. Such generalization at the national level ignores the regional qualities of several superior indigenous breeds. Further, India together with some international agencies has launched the most comprehensive cattle development programs in the world. Known as the Key Village Scheme and Intensive Cattle Development Projects, their main objective is the spatial diffusion of superior quality breeds throughout the country. This study is the first attempt towards mapping andevaluating the problems and success of these programs at the district level in India.Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for supporting the postfield work part of this study. The author also wishes to thank Dr. A. G. Phipps for helping in computer programming, Keith Bigelow for cartographic work, Keith Bell and Sue Ann Hipkin for data processing and mapping, and Mrs. Dorothy Young for the typing.     

区域水资源复合系统可持续发展机制研究

区域水资源复合系统在利导因子和限制因子的共同作用下呈S型增长模式,可以用Logistic曲线(L曲线)或Gompertz曲线(G曲线)描述其发展过程.对其微分形式的分析表明,L曲线的成长期和全盛期、G曲线的成长期、全盛期和成熟期分别是其可持续发展区.对L曲线的差分形式分析表明,适当的发展速度是实现系统可持续发展的关键,应尽可能使发展速度处在最优区间,过低会影响当代人的进步,过高又会导致演化过程不稳定,甚至出现混沌.区域水资源复合系统的可持续发展过程是多阶段、多层次的组合S型曲线,可用L曲线或G曲线的起步期、成长期和全盛期作为一个周期,构造系统可持续发展的组合S型轨迹方程.最后拟合了大连市和烟台市水资源复合系统1996-2005年的发展指数,结果均为两层的组合L曲线.     

Regional development and regional planning in the countries of the Third World

Acceleration of socio-economic progress and the achievement of self-reliant economy by the developing countries are closely linked with transformation of sectoral and spatial structure of colonial type economy, which is characterized by nonintegration, extreme inequalities in resources and land utilization, and regional disparities in the levels of socio-economic development. The State plays the leading role in this process through elaboration and realization of long-term regional policy and regional planning, the necessity of which is admitted in the majority of the developing countries. Their scientific substantiation is connected with investigation of objective process of formation of the spatial structure of the new type economy. The latter is formed in the process of interaction of the major regionalization systems: natural-resources, demography-ethnic, socio-economic (systems of special sector-wise and integral-complex regions are embedded in these systems). The systems of socio-economic regionalization are the most dynamic and manageable. But the modern stage of the development of the Third World countries is characterized by the essential changes of other regionalization systems as well. Evaluation of disproportional correlations in their interaction and elaboration of measures to reduce them constistute one of the most important objects of modern geography. Specialization of economic regions in the productions, which have favourable regional combinations of resources results in acceleration of economic growth because of the benefits of spatial division of labour. At the same time regional specialization and increase of inter-regional linkages strengthens the integration on all-national scale, which is of vital importance for the developing countries. The acute, not only economic but also socio-political problem of rapid backward areas advancement can and must be solved not separately (although such attempts have been undertaken often enough) but as a part of the general strategy of regional development. Scientific substantiation of the effective regional planning in the developing countries is an object of interdisciplinary research, where geographers are called to play the leading role.     

The evolution of regional development concepts: some new trends

This paper traces the theoretical development of the regional concept and the use of regionalization techniques in Soviet geography and seeks to compare this history with comparable trends in Western geography. It is severely critical of the major and rapid paradigm shifts noticed in post-war Western geographical science and relates these to shifts in the approach to global development issues.     

The role of industry in regional development in capitalist countries

In developed countries regional development issues have increased in importance at just that moment when manufacturing is steadily declining. This paper examines the role of industry in regional development by reconsidering the openness of regional economies and the nature of inter-industry linkages. It concludes that peripheral regions share the problems of peripheral nations in the capitalist world economy.     

GIS-based spatial and temporal prediction system development for regional land subsidence hazard mitigation

An integrated GIS-based approach for establishing a spatial and temporal prediction system for groundwater flow and land subsidence is proposed and applied to a subsidence-progressed Japanese coastal plain. Various kinds of fundamental data relating to groundwater flow and land subsidence are digitized and entered into a GIS database. A surface water hydrological cycle simulation is performed using a GIS spatial data operation for the entire plain, and the spatial and temporal groundwater infiltration quantity is hereby obtained. Through the data transformation from the GIS database to a groundwater flow code (MODFLOW), a 3D groundwater flow model is established and unsteady groundwater flow simulation for the past 21 years is conducted with results which compare satisfactorily with observed results. Finally, a Visual Basic code is developed for land subsidence calculations considering aquifer and aquitard deformation. Future land subsidence in the plain is predicted assuming different water pumping scenarios, and the results provide important information for land subsidence mitigation decision-making.