Study On Regional Differences Of Foreign Direct Investment In China

Globalization is the major tendency of economic development in the modern world.As foreign direct investment(FDI) is one creative investment including capital,knowledge and management,it has become one most important carrier of knowledge and technology transfer and played a key role in national economic development since 1980s.The developing speed of FDI has already surpassed international trade and international technology transfer.Thus,each country has paid great attention to FDI.China is quickly integrating into the world economy and has carried out many incentives to attract FDI since 1970s.So has each local government. FDI has played an important role in China economy until early 21st century and helped to promote the rapid development of national economy.The regional distribution of FDI in China is quite unbalanced—more than 80% is concentrated in eastern coastal regions and the increasing speed of FDI in eastern China is also higher than that in central and western China. Moreover,the unbalanced distribution of FDI also broadens the economic gap among different regions.Therefore,it is necessary to study on the degree,influences and reasons of the unbalanced FDI distribution and find how to narrow the differences and the factors influencing where to invest for foreigners to be beneficial to regional economic policies.Guided by FDI theory, regional theory,and the theory of non-balanced regional development and referred to the existing methods,achievements and experiences of FDI research at home and abroad,it uses quantitative and qualitative methods to carry research on FDI regional differences from the three aspects of quantity,capability and efficiency.On the basis of analyzing the time and spatial differences of FDI regional distribution,it further explores the reasons for the different capability to attract FDI and the different using efficiency of FDI among different areas.This study is to provide evidence for actively guiding FDI into modern and western China and promote the harmonious economic development among different regions.The framework of the thesis is as follows:Chapter One General Introduction. With the quick increase in the total amount of FDI development,FDI regional distribution is quite unbalanced,which has big influences on the differences of regional economic development in China.Based on the above background,this chapter summarizes and evaluates the related national and international research.According to the purpose and significance of the thesis,it formulates the structural framework and methods of the research and summarizes the innovations of this study.Chapter Two The theatrical foundation of research on FDI regional differences.Firstly, it defines the terms of FDI,foreign-invested enterprise,the eastern, central and western region and their related concepts.Secondly,it briefly reviews FDI theory,regional theory,and the theory of regional imbalance.Lastly,it briefly introduces how FDI promotes economic development.Chapter Three The international experience in the utility of FDI.This chapter introduces the utilizing course of FDI in two developed countries (the US and Japan) and two developing countries (Brazil and Singapore),and analyzes their current situation of regional differences,and their experiences in improving their capability and efficiency in attracting FDI and narrow the regional differences. On the above basis,it summarizes the enlightenment and references from FDI in such foreign countries for our country.Chapter Four The quantitative differences of the amount of FDI in different regions.In order to explore the trend of FDI regional changes,this study analyses FDI differentiation by means of Gini Index and Theil Index.It finds that the regional differences is more significant than the differences in regions,the differences in eastern China has the biggest influences on the differences in the whole country,and the development of FDI is similar in the three regions. The reasons of the formation of such differences are: the unbalanced inter-provincial development among the regions;the government has been encourage the investment in inner-land,but hasn't issued the related preferential policies.Moreover,in calculating the differences among providences,it uses the concept of"center of gravity"to examine the change of FDI regional differences.It finds that the"centre of gravity"of FDI is more close to southern China and eastern China,but it has tendency for FDI to move towards central and western China and the inter-provincial FDI regional differences tend to decrease.Chapter Five The regional differentiation of the capability to attract FDI.Summarized the existing research results at home and abroad,this chapter discusses the regional differentiation of FDI in our country from the aspect of attracting capability.Based on the 16-year panel data of the 29 provinces,and using the viewpoint of the host country,this chapter constructs the time series panel data model.It selects the six factors (i.e. preferential policy, scale of the market, fiscal income, education level,the degree of marketalization,the efficiency of the government) to analyze the whole country,eastern China, western China and central China. Using the data of 2007 and the method of factor analysis,it finds that human resources and economic environment are the main factors influencing the capability of attracting FDI,and builds the system of investment ability in China.Using the method of cluster analysis, it divides 29 provinces of China into three categories,and explores the comparative advantages and problems in attracting FDI in different regions.Chapter Six The regional differentiation of using efficiency of FDI.This study carries out the quantitative research on the three aspects of structure,microeconomic and macroeconomic efficiency.It concludes that because of the differences in FDI resources in the three regions,the size and industry of the foreign enterprises vary.In recent years,the economy in eastern China is not very efficient,while central and western China's ability of attracting needed technology and capital has been improving.Therefore,the microecnomic efficiency related to FDI in western China has improved and it has decreased in eastern China while the microecnomic efficiency of using FDI in the central region is intermediate.Funds are gradually moving from east to the modern and west.However, the macroeconomic efficiency of using FDI in eastern China is higher than that of central and much higher than that of western China.Guided by the objective laws of economic development and compared with the same period in the eastern zone,central and western China have the ability to digest more FDI. The central and western areas have greater potential for FDI utilization.Chapter Seven Conclusions and suggestions.This part makes research conclusion of this dissertation,and suggestions after evaluating the FDI regional differences.