On The Role Of Government In Guangdong Industrial Shift Park Construction

Since the reform and open policy, Guangdong made a brilliant achievement in its economics development and its economic strength has been classed number one in China for more than 21 years in succession. However, Guangdong has not really jumped from an economically big province to an economically strong province. The reasons of such phenomenon consist in the still extensive emphasizing economics-developing manner, in the relatively low level of per capita income by comparison to developed province, in the insufficient optimalization of the industrial structure and in the significantly serious phenomenon of regional out-of-balance economics in Guangdong. Since the end of 2005, the Guangdong Province Government and the provincial Party committee, in guiding this matter along its curse of development, have promoted industries shift and the economic development of the under-developed regions by the construction of industrial shift parks jointly carried out by the local governments of Zhujiang Delta and of the mountainous regions in northern, eastern and western Guangdong.[3]In 2008, the Guangdong Province Government and the provincial Party committee further launched the so-called"Double Shift Policy", i.e., the industrial shift from Zhujiang Delta to the mountainous regions in northern, eastern and western Guangdong and the transfer of high-qualified labour force to non-agriculture industries and to Zhujiang Delta.[4]Soon after the"Double Shift Policy", the World financial crisis broke out and impeded seriously China economics and especially Gudngdong's export-oriented economics. In such context, keeping economic growth was the main goal of the local governments and thus the"Double Shift Policy"was facing huge difficulty and challenge. The construction of industrial shift parks, as important vehicle of the"Double Shift Policy", attracted widespread attention of people from all sectors of society.China is a developing country and is in the primary stage of construction of the socialist market economy. China market economy develops under the leading of the government and thus government disposes powerful capacity in the resources distribution. Although the industrial shift constitutes independent behaviour of concerned enterprises under the market economy rules, the governmental policy and measures may give guidance to the construction of industrial shift parks, promote the industries shift progress and thus facilitate the economic development of the under-developed regions.However, the practice of the last years shows that the model of industrial shift parks construction under governmental leading has raised numerous problems and did not reach the expected result. Under such context, this paper aims to study the role of government in the construction of industrial shift park and may on the one hand enrich the theory of industrial shift park construction and on the other hand serve as a guide to the government in order to further improve the rational and scientific development of the industrial shift park construction.Methodologies used in this paper consist in the classification of current research documentation and the combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis basing upon ample practical investigation and research. According to the paper, Guangdong industrial shift park construction conforms to the theories of industrial shift, of industrial park construction and of the role of government as well as Deng Xiaoping's theory of regional economic development. It constitutes a kind of institutional innovation that meets the rule of market economy development. Through out the problems raised in the industrial shift parks construction, this paper aims to analyse the government insufficiency in the industrial shift parks construction leading function, including insufficiencies in the planning of the park area, in the investing funds, in the support from the governments of Zhujiang Delta, in the attracting investments from overseas, in the environmental protection, in the exploitation of lands, in the formation of labour force and other governmental support, etc.The causes leading to the government insufficiency consist in the insufficient understanding of local governments, in the imperfection of coordination system put in place by the government in the promotion of the industrial shift, in the inhibiting factors resulting from the current administrative system, in the imperfection of the park management system, in the speculation of interests between cooperation parties of the industrial park, as well as the insufficient competence of local governments of the under-developed regions, etc.Governments have launched many important support policies in industrial shift, including direct input of government funds. But due to lake of implementation under market rule, this leads to the high input but low output result and impedes seriously the efficient function of the role of the governments.The paper also carry out comparative research on the market leading industrial park of US Silicone Valley, the government monopolizing industrial park of Japan, the government leading and government, industries and research establishments cooperative industrial park of Taiwan Xinzhu, as well as the typical industrial park of Suzhou.Basing on the experience of the national and foreign industrial park construction, the paper, facing the query of how the government can enforce the construction of industrial shift park in Guangdong, considers that it is necessary to stick to the principles of government leading and market orientation, of mobilization of multi-participants force to join the construction, of sustainable development, of categorical guidance and of parallel development of industrialization and urbanization, etc.Also, the construction and development of industrial shift parks should be a progressive and regular process and the government should adapt and place different emphasis at different stages of the construction. At the primary stage, the government should play direct leading role by strengthening organization and leading, by improving planning and structuring, by perfecting support policy, by augmenting attraction of overseas investments, by optimising administrative environment, in order to reduce enterprises'production and exploitation cost and to increase attraction of the parks.When the industrial shift park have entered into the stable development period, the government's role should switch into indirect leading function and place emphasis in optimising management of the park, increasing the park innovation capacity, promoting the social organisation of the parks, creating park culture, improving legislation, in order to provide to the industrial shift park with a sustainable development environment.