HAS THE PEARL RIVER DELTA BEEN AN EXPORT-ORIENTED ECONOMY?

Ever since the introduction of the Open Door Policy, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) has enjoyed very phenomenal export and economic growth. As a result, many scholars have tried to associate the two phenomena and described the region as an,'export-oriented economy'.However, these studies, mostly based on the rapid export growth of the PRD and its status as the most important exporting area of the country,have not paid any heed to the actual export-orientation of the regional economy and, hence, cannot prove that the PRD has been a 'truly'export-oriented economy. in view of these shortcomings. the present paper attempts to re-examine the issue from the viewpoint of the PRD's local economy, at both the regional and county levels. The study period is from 1981 to 1990. Judging from the export-dependency indices and the relative importance of exports in accounting for the economic growth and industrialization of the PRD, this paper concludes that the region, though having signs of increasing export-orientation, cannot be categorized as a 'truly' export-oriented economy. In addition, it also shows that most of the 'evidences' or 'common beliefs' behind the notion of an export-oriented economy in the RD are illusionary, if not erroneous. Finally, the paper explores into the reasons behind the low export-orientation of the PRD and tries to sugyst some ways for boosting the export-orientation of the PRD and tries to suggest some ways for boosting the export-orientation of the region.

Current Situation and Problems of Export-oriented Tilapia Processing in Guangxi and Countermeasures

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is an excellent area for tilapia breeding in China,and the development of tilapia industry has received high attention of both the state and Guangxi government. The foreign exchange earning is an essential industrial form of tilapia industry in Guangxi. Thus,enhancing the competitiveness of export-oriented tilapia processing is of great significance to the development of tilapia industry. On the basis of field survey,this paper analyzed current situation of export-oriented tilapia processing in Guangxi. At present,tilapia processing industry in Guangxi has realized preliminary standardization,large-scale and grouping,but it is still faced with some problems and challenges,such as low industrialization level,no balanced marketing,and imperfect product quality safety monitoring measures. Therefore,it is required to create favorable environment for export-oriented tilapia processing industry in Guangxi through enhancing policy support,increasing financial input and supporting tilapia processing leading enterprises.

Impetus for Export-Oriented Economy——Review of foreign capital utilization in Hunan during the Eighth Five-Year Plan period

Since its implementation of the openingpolicy,China has witnessed greatsuccess in foreign fund utilization.Hunan,situated in the hinterland,beganto introduce foreign capital a little later thanthe coastal areas.In 1979,Hunan began toconduct processing and assembling businessand compensation trade,but gained only afew million US dollars.A vast change wastook place in the Eighth Five-Year Planperiod,achieving a great quantitative andqualitative rise in foreign capital utilizationas compared with the sixth and seventh Five-Year Plan periods.In the past five years,Hunan has approved 4,001 foreign-fundedprojects,a 5,5-fold increase over the total forthe previous 12 years(1979-1990),including3,584 projects directly financed by

Export-Oriented Economy in Shenzhen

In the past 15 years Shenzhen has made great achievements in its export-oriented economy. According to customs’ statistics, the city’s export value stood at US $ 14.3 billion in 1993 and US $ 12.1 billion in the first three quarters of 1994. The total import and export value was US $ 23.8 billion in the first three quarters of 1994, a 1, 500-fold increase over 1979 and an average annual growth rate of 70%. Export trade held a small part in Shenzhen’s economy

An Approach of Reducing Overall Level of Export Fluctuations of the Export-oriented Countries

Overall level of export fluctuations of the export-oriented countries with rising export volume partly stem from the market failure caused by free choice of export enterprises,some government intervention thus may be necessary.To reduce the level of fluctuations of the export growth rates in these countries,this paper,taking the significant differences of the exports among various markets into account and thus using a new index named relative variance to measure the export volatility risks,proposes a model of merchandise market portfolio,a modified version of Markowitz model,available to provide explicit guidelines for the firms,the industries and even the whole country to optimize the structure of their export markets.An application of this model to the case of China’s apple is then discussed.The results show that the market share of China’s apple in 7 sub-markets should be redistributed drastically.

Zhangjiagang's Strategies for the Export-oriented Economy

Following its fast development over the past dozen years, especially the past three years, Zhangjiagang, a coastal city in Jiangsu Province has established conditions for the further advance of its export-oriented economy. An official of the city announced to the press in Beijing recently that with the aim of building Zhangjiagang into a modern port city by the end of the century, the following three strategies have been adopted:

THE CHARACTER AND CHANGE TENDENCY OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE IN THE ZHUJIANG DELTA－A CASE STUDY OF SHUNDE CITY

In this paper, Shunde City is selected as a typical region standing for the Zhujiang Delta because of its excellent location and dike-pond system.There are three main characters of agricultural land use in this region. First, the most typical land use form is dike-pond system. It is a special form of artificial ecosystem of land-water interaction. Second, sandy field is also an important land type in this region. Third, land use is greatly influenced by export-oriented economy. Recently, with economic reforming and the opening up of the Zhujiang Delta, the structure of agricultural land use has been changed greatly. The area of mulberry dike has decreased and a variety of planting crops has increased.Various structure of dike-pond farming has emerged in the Zhujiang Delta such as 'fruit dike-fish pond', 'flower dike-fish pond', 'grass dike-fish pond', 'vegetable dike-fish pond'. The area of water has slightly increased and its development tends to modernization due to the use of modern equipment and advanced breeding ways. The area for 'three high'(high yield, high quality and high efficiency) agriculture has increased greatly.

RESEARCH ON THE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN CHINA: TAKE SHANDONG PROVINCE AS AN EXAMPLE

Nowadays in China, the coastal development strategy (CDS) aims to make the region (with population 160 million) ahead of developing export-oriented economy and to promote the inland economic prosperity at the same time.The paper analyzes the CDS based on the background of coastal area and the situation at home and abroad, and mainly discusses the relevant tactics in Shandong Province, China.

Empirical Analysis of China's Service Sector Development and Strategic Transition

Since reform and opening-up in 1978, the service sector has become the largest industry in China's economy. Compared with developed countries, however, China's service sector, especially modern services, remains rather undeveloped in terms of its aggregate size and internal industrial structure. The underlying reason is that the international OEM model under an export-oriented strategy created both technology spillovers and crowdingout effects on domestic service firms. With the deepening global division of work, such a market crowding-out effect is outweighing the technology spillover effect. This paper suggests that China's service sector must shift towards a domestic consumption-based strategy, utilize domestic and foreign production factors, and promote service sector innovation and development in differentiated monopolistic competition.

Globalization and Voluntary Environmental Management in Developing Countries

Weak capacity to enforce regulations and sanction violators, and an emphasis on economic growth in developing countries has led to concerns about worsening environmental conditions and the potential for these countries becoming pollution havens for multinational corporations. International environmental standards, voluntary programs, and public disclosure programs have gained popularity because they engage market participants in providing incentives for self-regulation and have the potential to substitute for the lack of domestic regulatory capacity. This paper analyzes the motivations for firms to undertake voluntary environmental management and reviews the empirical evidence on the type of firms participating in such initiatives and their effectiveness in improving environmental performance. We also consider the special case of China that has witnessed dramatic globalization following its acceptance into the World Trade Organization and participation by its firms in global supply chains. We conclude with a discussion of the effectiveness of these efforts as a substitute for weak regulatory and civic society pressures in these countries.