THE IMPACT OF THE WESTERN MACRO-REGION’S LARGE-SCALE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY ON CHINA’S SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT: DOMESTIC POLICY EFFICIENCE AND CHALLENGES
Poling Xu1,2, Jianhui Xu3
1University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
2Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, Beijing, China
3Vocational College of Industry and Commerce, Yiwu, Yiwu, China
Keywords: uneven spatial development of China, Strategy of Large-Scale Development of the Western Macro-Region of the PRC, Strategy of Revival of the Old Industrial Base of the Northeast of the PRC, modernization, policy of reform and openness of the PRC, indices for assessing the quality of economic development
Abstract
The Strategy for the Large-Scale Development of the Western Macro-region of the PRC is an important national regional economic development strategy to deepen the reform and opening-up policy measures during the period of rapid economic development of the People’s Republic of China. This Strategy was formally put forward in 2000, after which it has passed through such historic stages as studying and formulating domestic policy measures, accelerating infrastructure construction, prioritising key areas, optimising environmental protection and improving people’s quality of life. In more than 20years of putting this national strategy into practice, China’s western macro-region has made significant achievements in increasing the total economy, reorganising the industrial structure, attracting investment, building infrastructure, improving the degree of opening up to the outside world, and improving people’s quality of life and the environment. Applying the regional economic development quality evaluation index system, we can find that the effect of improving the quality of regional economic development in the Western macro-region is very significant. The West is a macro-region of the PRC with vast areas. Due to the geographical factor, the Western macroregion continues to face challenges in development, such as difficulties in industrial transformation and modernisation, weak regional capacity for technological innovation and heavy debt burden. It will take a long time for the macro-region to get rid of external financial support as well as to achieve endogenous economic development. Regional development requires domestic policy support and coordinated development between developed and developing regions. At the same time, building the Western macro-region’s self-reliant development capability as well as the ability to develop independently is the key to ensuring the ultimate success of the Strategy for the Large-Scale Development of the Western Macro-Region of the PRC.
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