China's Regional Spatial Structure Optimization And Coordinated Regional Development

This dissertation aims to gain an insight into how to promote regional economic coordination and development through regulation and optimization of regional spatial structure. Regional spatial structure indicates the degrees and forms of spatial agglomeration caused by the interaction of social economic entities. Coordinated regional development include:a reasonable division of labor, close economic links, narrowing the gap among regions, and overall economic efficiency growing. As being the spatial carrier of economic development, regional spatial structure meanwhile gives an impact on economic development. Rational spatial structure and organization gives a vital assurance of regional economic rapid growth and balanced development, and serves as a foundation of national economy sustainable development.Since the founding of New China, with the economic development and the change of regional strategies, the regional spatial structure has been regrouped with a large reflection of the spatial change of the degrees and forms of spatial agglomeration of social economic activities. This change can either widen or close the gap of the spatial layout unbalance and regional income. The data over the recent years observes that China's regional spatial structure is going to a balance, and the relative income gap among the regions is closing. However, there are still existing some problems like the bigger absolute income gap, the unmatched centralization between industry and population, and segmentation of regional market. So, what kind of spatial structure can promote the regional balanced development and how to build it up?A rational spatial structure can be defined as being able to both achieving the efficiency of the overall economic development, and promoting a balanced development among regions, also maximizing protection environment resources. The author holds that the goal can be achieved by establishing a spatial structure based on urban agglomeration as basic regional unit, where urban agglomeration is a key. From the prospective of overall effectiveness, moving population and industries towards urban agglomeration can exert the agglomeration benefit, and improve the efficiency of overall economy. From the other side of spatial structure balance, such structure can cultivate central and western urban agglomeration, which acts as carrier can accept the industrial transferring from the eastern area. Meanwhile, it can play the comparative advantage, set up domestic industrial value chain, and interactively develop east and west. Thus, efficiency and spatial balance both can be realized, namely, the goal of coordinated development bewteew urban and rural, between regions can be achieved.Chapter1contains an introduction to the writing background and meaning, and a literature review, which thereby comes up with the research themes. Some key concepts are defined, i.e. Regional Spatial Structure, Coordinated Regional Development.Chapter2systematically reviews some relative basic theories for the purpose of providing theoretical supports for the forthcoming contents.These theories include: the Theory of Spatial Agglomeration, the Theory of the Division of Labor, the Theory of Spatial Structure, the Theory of Sustainable Development and scientific concept of development.Chapter3provides a theoretical analysis framework, which responds to what kind of spatial structure (in agglomeration degree and form) suits and facilitates a balanced development. On one hand, urbanization development and agglomeration effect promotes economic efficiency going up and developing the overall economy. On the other hand, it results in the gap among the regions, known as unbalanced development. How to trade off the efficiency and the balance shall be taken into our consideration. Urban agglomeration as a regional unit features the geographical spatial structure of agglomeration in the dispersion; meanwhile the region of urban agglomeration has an internal consistency between urban agglomeration economy and regional coordination goal. Therefore, to establish the spatial structure taking urban agglomeration as a main body is a better way, in which agglomeration advantage can be used, development efficiency can be improved, and regions can be kept balanced. Chapter4gives a retrospective study of the evolution, status quo and problems of China's regional development and regional structure. Since the founding of New China, with different times background central government adopted different regional strategies and reconstucted regional spatial structure. As result, level of coordination among the regions kept changing. Nowadays, the regional gap narrow down, and regional coordinated development seemed improving. However, the absolute gap is still big, and there are still many barriers to factor mobility. To selove these problems regional spatial structure need to be regulated and optimized.Chapter5investigates how to optimize China's regional spatial structure. First, what about the evoluation tendency in China's spatial structure? China's regional structure is going to the spatial structure of urban agglomeration through analysis. This tendency provides a cornerstone for the later analysis. Second, what about the agglomeration degree in the spatial structure? Are the central cities and the urban agglomeration oversized? Are they uneconomic? The analysis shows that both the size of central cities and urban agglomeration is likely to be expanded to agglomeration economy and economies of scale in comparison with that globally. This thesis comes up with the basic thinking of spatial structure optimization with an aim to develop in agglomeration and keep an overall balance, namely, establishing the spatial structure in agglomeration form and urban agglomeration and achieving a balance of land space by the means of industrial and financial transferring. The design is based on major functional zoning to develop urban agglomeration, set up economic zones, combine points, lines and areas, and construct a spatial structure of urban agglomeration, development axis and economic zone.Chapter6explores how to promote regional coordinated development in the optimized territory space. This section comes up with a new thinking of taking industrial transfers as bridges and urban agglomeration as carriers. Urban agglomeration can play agglomeration efficiency, improve economic effective through population and industrial clustering, this is from the point of overall efficiency. From the angle of spatial structure balance, industrial transferring from east to west, building up domestics value chain, playing comparative advantage and realizing the spatial balance can not only achieve efficiency, but also balanced development. Consequently, the final goal of urban and rural coordinated development and regionals coordinated development can be achieved.The last part of the paper contributes some concrete suggestions, and concludes a summary and shortcomings. Furthermore, it points the directions of future study.