Measurement Of Economic Development Level And Analysis Of Inter-provincial Differences In Southwest China

Since our government carried out western development strategy in 2000, western region economy has entered into the stage of rapid growth, the growth rates of provincial GDP all remain above 8% per year. At the same time, all sectors of the national economy and incomes have greatly improved. All these facts show that during 14 years that our government put the western development policy into force, the economic strength and incomes of western region have increased notably. However, as the ongoing growth of western region economy, the gap between the western region and the national average, the internal gap and other issues are still outstanding at the same time. As an objective economic phenomenon, regional economic disparities exist not only among the eastern, central, western area of China and different provinces, but each sub-region also has disparities in different degree. This paper selects economic differences of southwestern China as the research object. According to the representativeness and availability of data, the article selects ten indexes to summarize the economic development level in southwestern China from six aspects that are economic aggregate, economic growth, regional prosperity, industrial structure, the level of opening up, people’s living standard. The paper uses AHP-TOPSIS, empirical analysis and other methods to find the economic development level and inter-provincial differences of southwestern provinces from 2000 to 2013. The results show that:(1) Economic development of southwestern provinces all show different degree of rising trend from 2000 to 2013.(2) The economic development potential of Chongqing and Guizhou province are relatively high in the five southwestern provinces.(3) Inter-provincial differences of economic development in southwestern region from 2000 to 2013 rise at first then fall down. In the next few years, inter-provincial differences in southwestern China will gradually decrease. Analyzing inter-provincial differences of economic development in southwestern region is conducive to grasp the change trend of differences on the whole. Then analyze the cause of the disparities and based on this, give corresponding counter measures and suggestions so as to promote regional economic integration and regional coordinated development, enhance the overall competitiveness of the region, meanwhile providing the oriental support for the government in making regional economic policy.