A Study On The Choice Of Regional Leading Industries

Through the historical research of the development of industrialized countries, economists revealed that: in a region or a country in different stage of economic development, there are always some industries (group) which are the most competitive, fastest-growing, and highest degree of relevance. These industries could push the economic development of entire region, and upgrade the industrial structure. So economists put forward the concept of leading industries. Japan is the most typical country which used the policy of leading industries to get leap economic development. During the 80s and 90s of last century, referenced Western theory of leading industries, the Chinese government picked the important industries and supported their development in every province, and achieved positive performance. But when these provincial governments draw on the theory of leading industries and took leading industry to practice, they encountered the problems such as isomorphism of leading industries between different regions and ambiguity of regional division that in the subsequent period of time many provinces had to give up the selection or formulation of leading industries. In this regard, our theoretical work is still made unremitting efforts. Some scholars put forward the concept of regional leading industries, and actively explore the difference between regional leading industries and national leading industries. They revealed that further: the failure of choice of regional leading industries in China is because of the confusion of national leading industries and regional leading industry, so it resulted in the isomorphism of leading industries in different provinces. In addition, there are a number of scholars who put forward to a number of the principle, benchmarks, indicators and methods of regional leading industries in accordance with the conditions of our country. However, the research is mostly limited to a theoretical level and applies to practice very few.In this dissertation, we take the basic theory of industry economics, regional economics, development economics as a basis for research of option of regional leading industries, so this research is an attempt of cross-cutting areas of economics. On the base of the summary of research of regional leading industries, we define the meaning of regional leading industries as"a cluster of industries which continue to promote the upgrade of the industrial structure and make differences of division of labor with other regions", and it is a research area including the dimensions of region, industry and time; Secondly, we analyzed the mechanism of formation and promotion, and defined the conditions, motion and path of option of the regional leading industries; Further, we studied the methods of option of regional leading industries, and established a framework combined with qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis; Finally, we took an empirical analysis of option of leading industries for example of JiLin Province. Through this research, we attempted to establish a operational framework of option of the regional leading industries which is applicable at the stage in China's economic and social development.In addition to introduction, the dissertation is composed with six chapters:1. Study Review and Literature Summary. This chapter carry out a systematic theoretical study of the regional leading industries, and divides into five parts: Firstly, the rise and development of Western theory of leading industries; Secondly, the application of the theory of regional leading industries in China's practice; Thirdly the difficulties of option of regional leading industries in China's practice; Fourthly, the further development of the theory of option of regional leading industries in China; Finally, the appraisal of the theoretical research of option of regional leading industries.2. Connotation and Characteristics of the Regional Leading Industries. In this chapter, we mainly studied of the source of the formation of regional leading industries from the areas of study of regional economics, industry economics and development economics, and then on the basis of the form summing up redefine the connotation of regional leading industries. We argue that: the regional leading industries are a cluster of industries which continue to promote the upgrade of the industrial structure and make differences of division of labor with other regions. Analyzed from the spatial dimensions, its characteristics is the symbol of the regional division of labor; Analyzed from the industrial characteristics, its function is the driving force for upgrading of the industrial structure; Analyzed from the historical trend of its evolution, they are a group of industries of continuously evolution. On this basis, we discussed the characteristics of the regional leading industries from three dimensions of region, industry and time. Finally, we distinguish relationship between the regional leading industries and the other industries.3. Research on the Formation of Regional Leading Industries and its Mechanism. This chapter includes two parts: Firstly, we explored the conditions, power and path of the formation of regional leading industries. Secondly, we theoretically analyzed the affective forms and mechanisms of regional leading industries. The conditions of the formation of regional leading industries include regional resource endowments, capacity of production factors supply, market demand, development of related industries, and industrial policy in support. The driving force of the formation of regional leading industries include technological innovation of industry, succession of the order of economic development stage, upgrade of the industrial structure and changes of the structure and level of demand; the path of leading industries include market spontaneously to form, government fostered the formation, as well as the mode of the market and the government combined with the push-pull; the leading role of the leading industrial sectors include the"polarization"effect the"proliferation"effect.4. Research on the Methods of Choice of Regional Leading Industries. In this chapter, we mainly introduced the methods of option of regional leading industries, which including the executor, aim, object, principle, benchmarks, indicators and their mutual relations, so established the logic basis of option of regional leading industries; On this basis, we proposed a framework including 3-level and 12 specific indicators for measuring, evaluation and selection of regional leading industries; Finally, we discussed the process of option of regional leading industries and introduced the methods of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. We are trying to propose the methodology of option of regional leading industries and lay the foundation for the empirical analysis below.5. An Empirical Study on the Choice of Regional Leading Industries- Jilin Province as an Example. This chapter is a practical application of the option of regional leading industries. First of all, we carried out an overview of the basic conditions of economic development of Jilin Province from several aspects of the process of development, strategic evolution, stages of development and the environment of development; Secondly, using of multi-level structure evaluation index system combining Delphi method, we took a quantitative analysis of the option of leading industries of Jilin Province and obtained the comprehensive evaluation index; Finally, combined qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis, we obtained four leading industries of the regional economy in Jilin Province in the future: industry of transportation equipment manufacturing, industry of food manufacturing, petrochemical industry and industry of timber manufacturing.6. Conclusions and Countermeasures. In this chapter, we set out the main conclusions of this article, as well as proposed countermeasures on the option and development of regional leading industries in China in the respects of scientific choice, improving planning, nurturing ability, scientific and technological innovation, and environmental optimization.The innovation of our research is:Firstly, for the nature of the regional leading industries, we raise the three properties of the region, industry and time, and redefined the meaning of regional leading industry on this basis. When the theory of leading industries introduced from abroad, domestic scholars have been taken attention on the industrial properties of the leading industries about the relevance. When the applications of theory of leading industry in the field of regional economic get obstacles, some scholars have put forth the regional property of the leading industries which mean that the leading industries behalf of the regional division of labor. In this paper, we introduced the concept of time and argued that the regional leading industries are not static but dynamic; Not only leading industry itself is in the process of shape, development and the recession, regional economic development also have different leading industries in different periods. Therefore, only introduced the property of time, regional leading industries is a living body of contradiction and an objective reality of life. We could reveal the essential character of the regional leading industries when the three basic properties of industry, region and time to be fully co-ordinate together.Secondly, we proposed that the principle, benchmarks and indicators of option of leading industries is a progressive logic entirety. Because the principle, benchmarks and indicators often confuse in previous studies, we argue that: First of all, the principle should be the nature of the inherent requirement of the law, the principle of regional leading industries should determine the basic direction of economic development. Secondly, benchmarks are concrete based on the principle and are the path of the direction of principle. Finally, the indicator are based on the specific measure, is, in principle, on the basis of benchmarks and standards to achieve. They should be a complete logic entirety. Our work is not only a summary of the current literature, is an attempt to provide a new method to the practice of option of regional leading industries.Thirdly, we get an analytical framework of option of regional leading industries. In this paper, we suggest that choice of regional leading industries should start from the qualitative analysis, which includes detailed analysis of regional economic development stage, the development strategy and internal and external environment; On this basis, through quantitative analysis industries in this region should be screened; Finally, combined qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis, we would get a cluster of regional leading industries which will promote the regional economy to develop healthily and continuously.The inadequacies of this study:On the one hand, because the current study relevant is less and the related literature from an economic point of view of regional space expansion of leading industries are rarely, it is difficult to find a great deal of empirical evidence to support some of the basic viewpoints of this article; On the other hand, because difficulty of the continuity and availability of the required data, we only took a research on option of regional leading industries in Jilin Province and it will also be affected to the result of the empirical research in this article.