Efficiency Of High-tech Industries In Ethnic Areas

The establishment of High Tech Industrial Development Zone(i.e, HTIDZ) inethnic regions has played a decisive role in the economic development of minorityregions.In the meantime, HTIDZ provides an innovative platform and opportunity forethnic regions to advance technology and achieve economic prosperity using theirlate-developing advantage. In a collection of economic development metrics inethnic regions, HTIDZ is becoming more and more important for regional economy.HTIDZ serves as the vehicle of human capability and capital clustering as well as themajor source of Hi-tech industrial production and job positions in the ethnic regions.In addition, comparing HTIDZ of ethnic area to those of other regions, it appears thatthey are becoming alike on various economic indices, showing that HTIDZ in ethnicregions has reduced the gap by guiding, reshaping and completing the industrialstructure. Although HTIDZs of ethnic regions show late-developing advantage interms of efficiency, the lump sum differences of industrial economy scales within andbetween regionsare noticeable. To better use the positive impacts of HTIDZ in ethnicregions, we need to clarify two questions. First, the initialization of HTIDZ in ethnicregions is not guided by market but administrative regulations. How can we definethe roles of government and market in the HTIDZ establishment, especially when themarket potential and endowment structure have yet formed any effective marketexpectation? Second, how about the performance that are resulted from existinggrowth models, and how shall we appropriately revise current policy? To these ends,we need to theoretically measure the developing performance of HTIDZ in ethnicregions; and empirically conduct extensive evaluations on collected data.Therefore this study includes two major parts. First, comprehensively review thehistorical trajectory of HTIDZ development in ethnic regions; Second, measure andevaluate the development efficiency of HTIDZ in ethnic regions. The essential idea ofthe review is to look at the policy transition, quantitatively analyze the statistics ofeconomic indices and then assess the evolution of HTIDZ industry, and finally weconduct quantitative analyses on the dynamic relationship between HTIDZ and regional economic development in ethnic regions. On the other hand, the idea ofanalysis on the efficiency of the HTIDZ development is to first assess the efficiency ofscientific and technological investments, identify the individual differences andbackground differences, and remove the fixed difference for later comparing of theefficiency differences; then we adopt a two-stage data envelop model to quantitativemeasure the investment and production efficiency in ethnic regions; lastly, we cancompare the efficiency differences within as well as between regions such that mainproblems are identified to fulfill logical preconditions for the policy advices in HTIDZdevelopment in ethnic regions.Specific research framework of this dissertationhas eight chapters. The firstchapter: introduction, which includesthe research background, research significanceand the descriptions on the framework of the dissertation; the second chapter: thedomestic as well as foreign literature review of the research on high tech Zonetheories. This involves the high-tech industry, economic growth theory, theinput-output efficiency evaluation method, industry, literature and theory isexpounded, and comment on the literature; the third chapter: the relationshipbetween the minority area high tech Zone Development and regional economicgrowth. From the minority regions of science and technology park developmentprocess, development status, industry distribution, evolution and regional economicgrowth and other aspects of the analysis, and the evolution of the high techDevelopment Zone, national minority area stage judgment and interpretation; thefourth chapter: An Empirical Study on the efficiency of minority investment inscience and technology. Based on input-output model to construct two stagenetwork DEA, minority regions of science and technology investment efficiency ofthe empirical analysis, found the effective investment in science and technology ofeach stage, and puts forward suggestions for improvement; the fifth chapter: outputefficiency evaluation of high tech Zone in minority area based on DEA model. Twobasic CCR model and BCC model using DEA method, the construction of6differentinput output model for efficiency evaluation of minority area high-tech zones, andfrom the perspective of the national minority area high-tech zones to improve input-output efficiency policy recommendations.The sixth chapter: the case analysisof the Nanning High-tech Industrial Development Zone as an example. Based on theinvestigation of Nanning High-tech Industrial Development Zone, introduces in detailthe Nanning High-tech Industrial Development Zones, industrial developmentdirection, development advantages and existing problems, according to the commonproblems existing in minority regions put forward policy suggestion; the seventhchapter: Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone Development in the minority regionsof policy recommendations. Combined with the actual situation, targeted for thedevelopment of national high tech Industrial Development Zone, puts forward somesuggestions for reference; the eighth chapter: the conclusion and future researchdirection.The eighth chapter: conclusion and future research direction thatconcludesthe study,provides policy implications, and discusses the limitations and futureresearch direction.The main findings are concluded as follows. First, the values of economic indicesare increasing in ethnic regions and the increase rate is higher in ethnic regions thanthe average rate of China. The HTIDZ can make use of late-developing advantage tocatch up in terms of the lump-sum quantity and structural quality. However, thecurrent overall quality of HTIDZ in ethnic regions is relatively weak and the gap tonational average is still noticeable.HTIDZ needs to combine objective efficiencyanalysis and endowment advantages in order to catch up in the hi-tech domain.Second, the HTIDZ focuses on the imitation and incremental R&D due to thatthey are far from the technology frontiers. The ratio of employees with high degreesand certificates is significantly below national average, and the ratio of participantsand budget in the scientific&technological related activities is also low. To chooseappropriate industries, HTIDZ in ethnic regions should emphasize on exploringnatural resources and providing outsourced services. To foster emerging industry,they have yet formed an effective clustering effect on important elements such ashuman capital.Third, HTIDZ in ethnic regions directly impact regional economy by creating newjobs and production. They can also indirectly promote for the local economy through knowledge spill-over and derivative business. Showing an increasing tendency, thejobs and the industrial output of HTIDZ account for the major component of localeconomies. For ethnic regions, we can establish HTIDZs with administrativeguidelines in order to realize the clustering of economical elements, promote for theproduction efficiency, and shape for regional economy growth.Forth, the evolutionary path of the industrial structure of HTIDZ in ethnicregions can be summarized as “unstable industrial structure–gradual formed amixed structure with traditional and hi-tech industries–then evolve to a structuraldominated by hi-tech industries–lastly a combination of hi-tech and modernservices”. However, each HTIDZ in ethnic regions is dominated by significantlydifferent indsutry due to the accumulated legacy and difference in resourceendowment. In addition, the structural evolution progress is also different amongHTIDZs in ethnic regions. Therefore, customized policies are desirable to facilitatesuch regional differences while the public policies are also essential to serve theircommonalities.Fifth, it is shown in the two-stage DEA model that significant variance exists inthe input-output efficiency of HTIDZ in ethnic regions. The HTIDZ at Changji, Liuzhou,Ningxia, andKunming are the most efficient in this metric, followed by those atBaotou, Guiyang and Qinghai. The HTIDZs in Urumqi, Nanning, and Guilin are amongthe lowest in terms of the input-output efficiency index. To increase this index, weneed to optimize the investment structure and increase the quality of industrialinvestment, complete the mechanism that strategically directs financial capital toemerging hi-tech industries, and prevent duplicate construction at lower level. Onthe other hand, to complete the industrial system with accessory supports, we needto keep the strategy of combining public supports and targeted supports and developor introduce hi-tech companies in order to benefit the overall competency of thelocal industry cluster.Sixth, case study shows that the HTIDZ in Nanning is spilling over to benefit theregional economy development and the impacts are increasing. The industrialstructure in the HTIDZ effectively reflects the strategic arrangement. However, it confronts with a series of problems, which includes the weak cohesive correlationwithin the industry cluster, insufficient technological and industrial associationsamong companies, and less emphasis on developing existing companies comparingto introducing new companies. Additionally, it gives priority to emerging hi-techindustries while overlooking the local endowment advantages. HTIDZ in Nanning hasyet formed a clustering effect on human capital due to the lack of incentives.