LU Da-dao, LIU Yi, FAN Jie
The paper condensed the m ajor viewpoints of 1997 RegionalDevelopm ent Re- port ofChina. The report took the regionaleconom ic developm ent as the m ajor them e, sum m arized m ainly the regionalpoliciesatnationaland provinciallevelsduring theeighth- five-yearplan and early stageoftheninth-five-yearplan, analyzed and evaluated thepolicy effects, developm entstates, existing problem s, and put forw ard som e recom m endations for regionaldevelopm entpolicies. Based on thesystem aticdiscussions, thepaperdrew the conclusions as follows: 1) The m acro-strategy to develop the coastalregions as priority exactly m atched our country’s situations atpresentstage, and the policies to im prove the Middle and WestChina developm enthad positive effectsto reverse the trends ofenlarged differencesbetw een the Eastand WestChina; 2) To realize the overallstrategictargetsof “Three-stage-theory”stillrequired theenforcem entofcoastalm odernization pulling strat- egy, and the infrastructure and socialdevelopm entshould be the priorities in the Middle and WestChina developm ent; 3) The pole ofregionaldevelopm entshiftsouthwards, the econom ic grow th in theSouth wasm oreactive, thestructuralissuesin theNorth hinderedthe socialand econom icdevelopm ent. During the processes ofreducing the regionaldiffer- encesbetween the Eastand the West, the difference ofeconom ic activities and structures between the North and the South should also be taken into considerations; 4) The abso- lute differences ofeconom ic developm entlevels enlarged rapidly am ong allprovinces, au- tonom y regionsand m unicipalities. How ever, therelative differencesshow ed thetrendsof declining; 5) There were w idely progressatprovinciallevelsin industrialstructuralalter- nations and new econom ic growth pole innovations, the provincialdevelopm entcharacter- ized with uniquefeatures,thedifferencesoftransportation, com m unication, infrastructure becam e m ore obvious, the allocation of grain production bases shifted northw ards and westw ards, and the problem s eagerto success and ofduplicate construction w ere very se- vere in grain production aspects; 6) The out-wards econom ic developm enthavegreatcon- tributions to sustainable and rapid econom icgrowth since reform and opennessbegan, but the effectsoffavorite policies in specialregionsand coastalopen cities declined gradually, thecontinued absorption offoreign fundsdepended gradually on econom icdevelopm entac- tivities of particular regions. Our country’s out-ward econom ic developm ent should en- force the regionalcore rolesofspecialregionsand coastalopen cities w hich were m ore ac- tive in econom ic developm ent; 7)The changes ofpoverty alleviation strategies have taken place from quantity to quality. The differences ofpoverty alleviation effectsam ong differ- entregionswereobvious, so did the facing problem s; 8)Thetaxation reform m etthe sub- jectneedsto controlthe regionalresourcesin m arketeconom y, and itincreased the finan- cialcapacity ofcentralgovernm ent, butthedream to im prove theregionalcoordinated de- velopm ent did not com e true. The distribution ofcentralgovernm ent financialaids were unfair between the less developed and m ore developed regions, and the correlation was very w eak between the financialaids percapita and GDPper capita ofeach province, au- tonom y region orm unicipality; 9)Thescopeofregionaleconom iccooperation enlarged and the form s diversified. The cooperation betw een the East and the West had obvious progress, but the cross-regions econom ic and technicalcooperation w as facing financial and banking barriers; 10)High developm entgrowth rate resulted in m ore and m oresevere ecologicalproblem swith therelatively seriousw aterand airpollution and very severe eco- logicaldegradations.
