Coordinated development is especially important in China where provincial rivalries have contributed to industrial duplications and overcapacities. The challenge is to get provinces and cities to cooperate as well as to compete in order to optimise development.
Coordinated Development is the second of the Five Major Development Concepts, President Xi Jinping’s guiding strategy to transform China’s economy. In order to optimise economic development, both the efficient allocation of resources and equitable access to resources are essential.
Historically, from the beginning of reform, China’s single-minded focus on economic growth, necessary at the time, generated inevitable problems – especially imbalances across geographies, sectors and classes – the disparities between urban and rural and between the eastern/coastal and western/inland regions. Moreover, economic competition among provinces and cities encouraged inefficient allocation of resources and exacerbated industrial overcapacity.
While China now recognises that the market must play a “decisive” role, there are still issues, such as how to integrate diverse regions and how to rebalance urban and rural areas.
That’s why the Chinese government has designated “Coordinated Development” as a prime policy to optimise economic transformation. Coordinated development means addressing and reducing diverse kinds of duplications and imbalances: it means different regions, especially adjacent regions, specialising in complementary not competitive industries and centres of excellence; and it means integrating the developmental planning of richer and poorer areas, such as rural regions of poverty on the outskirts of modern cities.
[ms-protect-content id=”3162″]Nationally, coordinated development means comprehensive regional initiatives integrating multiple provinces and cities, such as the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province urbanised region. Internationally, coordinated development means the Belt and Road Initiative, involving more than 60 countries in infrastructure development.
In examining the Five Major Development Concepts for Closer to China with R.L. Kuhn, my weekly show on CCTV News (Sundays 9:30 am and 9:30 pm), I learned that a national example of coordinated development is the city of Luzhou in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. I wanted to find out why.
Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Located at the intersection between Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, Luzhou was traditionally a marginal area. I met Luzhou Mayor Liu Qiang, who explained how the city has been transformed from a centre for producing Chinese liquor (baijiu) into a prime coordinating centre in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
“Luzhou has incongruities,” he said, “uneven urban-rural development, especially in education and health. Also, neighbouring Yunnan province has poverty-stricken counties in its mountainous areas. We must invest, especially in technology and the training of personnel, and we are implementing the national mandate for ‘precision poverty reduction’. The burden is heavy.”
Luzhou is a major port on the Yangtze River and the largest in Sichuan. The Yangtze links half of China, and the Yangtze River Economic Belt connects nine provinces and two of China’s major cities, Chongqing, the great western centre, and Shanghai, China’s economic engine on the sea.
Liu explained how Luzhou works with the megalopolises. “With Chongqing, we cooperate in tourism, agriculture, complementary industries and transportation interoperability. With Shanghai, we have agreements in science and technology and innovation-driven development, and we invite Shanghai companies to Luzhou.”
Due to its geographic location, Luzhou decided to become a transportation hub – and at its centre is the Luzhou port, which connects the city with the entire Yangtze River Economic Belt. Cargo goods from Luzhou can now reach the Republic of Korea via Nanjing in Jiangsu province, and Taiwan via Wuhan, Hubei province. Additionally, in 2011, the government spent 500 million yuan ($74.97 million) to build the first railway-river combined transportation system.
More than raw economic growth is required though. To improve standards of living in one of China’s least developed regions, Luzhou’s strategy is also to become a regional educational and health centre.
Liu does not fear competition. “Competition is the driving force of development,” he said. “I find competition good, even necessary. Besides, there is now more cooperation. For instance, Luzhou and its neighbouring cities are coordinating infrastructure, industry, environmental protection, and various exchanges. Sichuan is signing agreements with Chongqing, Yunnan and Guizhou. We tell each other what we want, and where we need support. Since the Five Major Development Concepts were raised, the cooperation between provinces has been more and deeper.”
Coordinated development is especially important in China where provincial rivalries have contributed to industrial duplications and overcapacities. Similar risks remain. The challenge is to get provinces and cities to cooperate as well as to compete in order to optimise development.
The article was first published on China Daily, 8 October 2016.
Featured image courtesy: China Daily
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About the Author
Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual, international corporate strategist and investment banker, and a China political/economics commentator featured on the BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, and as a columnist in the South China Morning Post and China Daily. For more than 25 years, Dr. Kuhn has worked with China’s leaders and the Chinese Government. He is the author or editor of over 30 books, including How China’s Leaders Think (featuring President Xi Jinping), and The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin (China’s best-selling book of 2005). He spoke at the launch ceremony of Xi’s book, The Governance of China, and he provided live commentary on CNN for Xi’s policy address during his US state visit (2015). He is the host and co-producer of Closer to China with R.L.Kuhn on CCTV News.
