Feasibility Study On Knowledge Economy Transformation In Beijing, Shanghai And Guangzhou And Corresponding Measures

Accompanied with the intensified globalization, different crisis, such as shortage of natural resources and environment pollution, are cropping up continuously. With the rapid development of China's economy over the years, GDP per capita in some core cities including Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai nearly reach USD 5,000. However, such rapid growth has also brought about a lot of social and economic problems, such as the increase of business cost and laid-off workers, the drop of marginal productivity, and deterioration of ecological environment. Therefore, the traditional factor-intensive economic mode has encountered the bottleneck. How to break through the "Bottleneck" has attracted global attention.According to the international experience, the key stage for the economic development and transformation in a country or a region iswhen its per capita GDP reaches USD 5,000 to 8,000. Further economic and social development in this area depends on whether the new characteristics in the key stage can be brought into full play.The 21st century features knowledge economy. Instead of abstract concepts, knowledge has already become the primary drive in the tangible economic system. Knowledge economy is established upon knowledge creation, process, diffusion and application. The development of knowledge economy will promote the development of the whole society. Depending on knowledge will enhance the harmonious and sustainable development of "Green" economy in a country or a region. Therefore, many countries have worked out corresponding strategies aiming at knowledge economy. And the knowledge economy has increasingly become the main trend of global economic development.Under this global context and from the knowledge economy perspective, this paper conducts a comparative analysis of the integrate levels of knowledge development in the three central cities in China. Feasibility study on how to overcome the bottleneck of traditional economy and transform into the knowledge economy is discussed in detail, together with specific corresponding measures.The paper includes 7 parts. The introduction discusses the research background - "Bottleneck" problems during the economic and social development in the three central cities as well as the researchobjective, main content and research method. Part 2 lays out the theoretical frame based on the meanings and characteristics of knowledge and knowledge economy, as well as the prerequisites of developing knowledge economy. Part 3 analyzes the rationality and practicality of current evaluating systems of knowledge economy. And then based on the systems of World Bank and some other authoritative institutions, a "Knowledge Evaluation Index System" is designed to measure the level of knowledge development in a country or a region. Part 4 is the core of the paper. Based on the vertical and horizontal comparison with 5 developed countries - America, Japan, Singapore, Korea and Britain from 1991 to 2002, the gap and feasibility of transforming into knowledge economy in the three central cities are identified and discussed. Part 5 qualitatively analyzes the inherent consistency between the aim of knowledge-based development and the strategies of sustainable and harmonious development. At the same time, the correlation between knowledge development and economic development is analyzed. In terms of the successful experiences of knowledge economy development in some major countries and regions in the world, Part 6 discusses some specific countermeasures for the three central cities (with the focus upon Shanghai) about how to transform into knowledge economy. The conclusion raises the papers' major contributions and implications, limitations, and future research directions.