Developing China’s west through regional zones

LU Zhongyuan (卢中原)1 and CHEN Changsheng (陈昌盛)2
1 Vice Minister and Research Fellow, Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council
2 Research Associate, Department of Macroeconomics Research, DRC

Editorial Note:China’s western regions have undergone tremendous changes since the country launched its great western development initiative. In respect to gross output value, western regions have registered an average annual growth rate higher than the national average during the period. However, western regions still have much lower per-capita GDP than the national average. Further advancing and promoting the development of western China is both a requirement for building a well-off society and a step toward establishing a scientific outlook on promoting regional development. But how should China, under today’s changing conditions, push forward the development of its west? In this article, the authors conduct an in-depth analysis of how to develop the west utilizing main functional zones. Based on this analysis, the authors put forward policy recommendations that provide insight into further development of western China.

Trends

Dividing main functional zones at national and provincial levels is an important strategic initiative for establishing a scientific outlook on development and promoting regional development in a coordinated way. Planning the national land space as required for main functional zones involves dividing the national land into four categories of development type, optimum, priority, restrictive and prohibitive. The planning should be done according to demographic distribution, economic distribution, national land use and urbanization patterns in the future based on the resource and environmental bearing capabilities of different regions and their development densities and potentials. It also involves positioning main functional zones, defining development directions, controlling development intensities, standardizing development orders, improving development policies and gradually shaping up a spatial development paradigm characterized by demographic, economic, resource and environmental coordination.