Central City And The Surrounding Cities, The Division Of Labor And Industry Integration

The basic element of international economic competition in 21st century is not an enterprise, nor a country, but a megapolis with a metropolis at the core. The labor division, cooperation and competition among megapolis will decide the world economic and political setup in the future. The establishment of a strong megapolis needs reasonable labor division and cooperation between the metropolis and the cities around. China will give priority to the development of megapolis in its tenth five-year plan (from 2001 to 2005). Although the Yangtze Delta Megapolis is the best in China, it can by no means be matched with other five megapolis in function and competitive capacity in the world. In the view of industrial development, the same industrial structure has been developed in different cities in the area, resulting in too much competition and inadequacy of complementation within the megapolis, deviating from the principle of social labor division among regions and disrupting the reasonable industrial division. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical importance for the sustainable development of the Yangtze Delta Megapolis to conduct the research of reasonable industrial division and integration between the metropolis and the cities around.This dissertation consists of three parts. The first part reviews the literature on megapolis development, drawing the conclusion that reasonable labor division between metropolis and the cities around is the key for promoting competitive capacity of a megapolis. Based on the empirical analysis on the labor division in some world famous megapolis and the detailed analysis of the development of Yangtze Delta Megapolis, the author points out that reasonable labor division and industrial integration between metropolis and the cities around is the key for sustainable development of Yangtze Delta Megapolis. In line with the theory of industrial economy and industrial integration and the current industrial development in the Yangtze Delta Megapolis, a detailed development pattern is made for labor division and industrial integration in the Yangtze Delta Megapolis, namely the division and cooperation of industrial value chain should be carried out according to the cost advantage of different cities; some concentrated industrial areas with international competitive power should be set up by homogeneously integrating the same industry in the area and heterogeneously integrating related industries with the tendency of industrial concentration. The third part exposes the sustainable development of the Yangtze Delta Megapolis, dealing with the issues of transportation, infrastructure and institutional innovation within the area.