Advantage And Regional Development

Regional differences and gaps are core issues of regional economic problems. Therefore, based upon the growth of national economic efficiency, narrowing of regional differences and gaps require those later-developing regions realize economic catch-up by compression of time and leap of scope. The Western theories of regional development have explained the disequilibrium problems of regional economic development from different views. However, those theories cannot resolve the problems completely.Regarding regional advantages of later-development as core conception and clue, this paper argues the problems of later-developing regions' economic leap-over. The favorable conditions or opportunities which later-developing regions would have because of their comparative lag or delay of economic development are later-development advantages, which cover every field and level of technologies and institutions. Real reflections of potential regional later-developing advantages are regional later-developing interests. Whether short-term or long-term, regional later-developing interests always turn from progressive increase to progressive decrease. As the result, in the process of economic catch-up, later-developing regions should continually seek new development impetus and switch driving force timely. The logic starting point of regional later-developing advantages lies in the development disequilibrium and gap between early-developing and later-developing regions. So, concerning regional economic catch-up, the basic argument of this paper is to narrowing gaps by utilizing gaps.The objective of the article is to find an overtaking method or way to exert the late-developing advantage to utmost. Later-developing regions can reach higher lever such as in early-developing regions through a different way such as technology imitation creation, institution transplant and structure dynamic optimization. Moreover, this way can save time and resource. So late-developing regions can have a higher starting point and avoid crooked roads and finally take off.The focus of this article is the converting conditions in late-developing advantage of regions. The late-developing advantage is only a relatively active understanding for backwardness and it provides late-developing regions a kind of opportunity or possibility to take off. This advantage is only potential and not really what they actually have. Converting the late-developing advantage to late-developing benefits rests with not only many conditions such as material capital, human resources, economy of scale and etc., but also the combination of the above factors and conditions, such as the dynamic exchange between technology imitation and institution transplant, the compatibility between institution transplant and informal restraints, the unifying of market space structure and etc. The practical problem this article will solve is the policy suggestion on the dilemma of late-developing advantage in China's western regions. As a big developing country, China has to face the economic pattern in which the eastern regions is much stronger than the western regions and there is a great gap between their economic potentials. So it is essential and necessary for the latter. An effective way is to accelerate technology and other economic factors to move from higher potential regions to lower ones. Only in this way can the latter be endowed advantageous conditions and great potentials to take off.China's western regions have fostered late-developing advantages due to its comparative backwardness. But in the period of transition, as a result of exogenous variables and endogenous factors of the region, the late-developing advantages can not be brought to full play and the catching-up target can not be realized. To achieve this, all difficulties must be surmounted, which not only depends on the support and spur from the government, but also, what is more important, requires China's western regions to find, create and improve the fields, means, conditions and channels which absor...