Sustainable Regional Economic Development In Karst Areas In Southwestern China

This paper reviews and analyzes the basic concepts and related theories of sustainable regional economic development. Combining normative analysis and positive analysis, it studies karst areas in Southwestern China in the following aspects: developmental conditions, industrial structure, spatial structure and ecological environment.Firstly, the paper follows the scientific outlook on development and basic principles of spatial equilibrium to expound the strategic significance of sustainable economic development in the karst areas. It was stated that the areas are special-type problem areas which are vulnerable in ecological environment yet rich in resources. The areas are centered in Guizhou Province, stretching across Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and involving some areas of Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality. The areas are located at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and Pearl River, and their environmental conditions bear on the economic and social development and ecological security of areas at the middle and lower reaches of the rivers. In the meantime, the karst areas are rich in energy resources and raw materials, development of which will not only be conducive to the stable and sustained economic development of China as a whole, but also help the areas step into the well-off society in an all-round way at an earlier date. However, special geological and topographic environment and rich resources constitute thespecial mix of natural environment and resources in the areas. It is a severe and pressing issue to decide on what developmental model to follow and what ecological improving mode to adopt to help the areas step into a resource-saving and environment-friendly society.Secondly, the paper reviews literature related to economic divisions of the karst areas. It then selects 44 indicators reflecting their basic natural, economic and social conditions and uses the principal component analysis to classify the 30 cities (autonomous prefectures or prefectures) by type of conditions in sustainable regional economic development. It is argued that the karst areas can be divided into five types, namely very good areas, fairly good areas, average areas, fairly bad areas and very bad areas; as nearly 60% of the cities (autonomous prefectures or prefectures) are below the average conditions, sustainable economic development in the areas allows little optimism.Thirdly, the paper analyses the industrial structure of the karst areas. The analysis indicates that the areas have been fairly slow in their evolution in industrial structure and, as a whole, are still in the primary stage of industrialization. However, the cities (autonomous prefectures or prefectures), belonging to the five different types of areas, are quite different in industrial structure and hence in different stages of industrialization. Industrialization in the areas is an arduous task. Due to their special natural environment and resource endowment, the selected path for their industrialization is the new resource-saving and environment-friendly road to industrialization. For different types of areas in their respective stages of industrial development, different strategies for industrialization should be adopted: very good areas can take science and technological industries as their leading or dominant industries; fairly good areas and average areas should strengthen and enlarge their strong industries according to their basis of industrial development; fairly bad areas and very bad areas should, with the precondition of conserving and reconstructing the ecological environment, rationally develop their strong resources, fulfill primitive capital accumulation for industrialization, and then proceed to higher levels.Fourthly, the paper analyzes the spatial structure of the karst areas in terms of urbanization and city grade and size system. It is argued that urbanization in the karst areas lags behind their economic development, and that due to geological and topographic effects, the spatial distribution of cities in the areas has the compound features of concentration and dispersion. That is to say, concentrated communities of cities are found in topographically flat karst areas like the Nanning karst basin plateau, mid-Yunnan karst plateau and mid-Guizhou karst plateau, in other karst areas while cities are dispersedly distributed. The paper points out that as the above three core regions have been formed where cities are densely distributed, urbanization in the karst areas should center on these cores, which should play leading roles in the development of their adjacent areas and the whole karst areas. It is also stated that underdevelopment of large cities grossly limits the effective division of labor and economies of scale in the karst areas. Therefore, it is necessary to actively cultivate large cities, develop medium cities and increase the capacity of cities on all grades.Fifthly, the paper holds that karst topography is the natural element in vulnerable ecological environment in the karst areas. Combined with land reclamation and blind extraction of resources by human beings, it has brought about severe soil erosion and rock desertification, resulting in various kinds of natural disasters, with grave threat to and loss to different degrees in property and life. The paper assesses the performance of the existing ecological compensation policy in returning cultivated land to forests and protecting natural forests. It is argued that local governments in the karst areas, weak in financial capacity, can hardly provide matching local funds, and that from the central government to local governments there is a lack of coordination between governmental departments. This makes it difficult to achieve the expected objectives of comprehensively improving ecological environment and to provide reasonable compensation to local governments and people. Compared with other areas, ecological compensation in the karst areas is low in unit investment, severely short of compensation funds and inadequate in the protection of the rights and interests of forestry farmers. It isimperative to raise compensation criteria, lighten the compensation burden of local governments, increase support for industrial development and transfer forestry farmers, so as to create a stable and harmonious social environment for building and managing ecological environment in the karst areas.Sixthly, the paper reviews literature on regional economic policy and concludes that the original regional economic policy can no longer fit in with the needs of the new sustainable regional economic development and there is a need to innovate new regional economic policy. The regional policy innovations involve innovations by the central government and by local governments. The paper puts forward the following suggestions: the central government should strengthen its support in funds, technology and preferential taxation for industrial structure upgrading and industrial development in the karst areas; it should also strengthen intervention in pricing in interregional cooperative projects like the West-to-East Electricity Transmission Project and lessen the loss in interests of the karst areas; the check-up system for local government officials by the central government should be innovated and should not based only on economic targets; it is also necessary to offer support in personnel training and science and technology in the karst areas and strengthen their capacity for independent innovation and self-development.