Building knowledge city in transformation era: Knowledge‐based urban development in Beijing in the context of globalisation and decentralisation

This study examines knowledge‐based urban development in Beijing with the objective of revealing the impact of the ‘synergetic’ forces of globalisation and local government intervention on knowledge‐based urban development in the context of the coexisting processes of globalisation and decentralisation. The findings in this paper show that due to the rapid growth of the cultural industry sector, knowledge‐based urban development has created various kinds of ‘cultural industry clustered areas’, which were recently promoted by the 2008 Olympic Games. ‘Synergetic’ global and local forces are leading knowledge‐based urban development, with the emergence of a local coalition regime in which local government manages local development, considered as ‘enterprises’ in the decentralisation process, while the State retains a significant influence on knowledge‐based urban development. The central and municipal governments tend to emphasise strategies to ‘facilitate the climate for growth’ rather than the centrally planned control they exerted prior to the 1980s.     

Hong Kong and the globalisation of the Chinese diaspora: a geographical perspective

This study examines the processes of spatial restructuring in the Hong Kong–South China region. The paper analyses urban‐rural interaction in a historical and transnational context. Based on detailed census data collected in 1961 and 1996, this study traces the origins of the Hongkongers and maps out their spatial distribution according to their native place identities. The heightened population movement between the rural hinterland in the South China region and the Hong Kong metropolis is inseparable from territorial organisation on the Chinese mainland. The great spatial mobility demonstrated by the Hongkongers, or, their ‘refugee mentality’ as it is known, is found to be deeply rooted in their marginal sub‐ethnic identity in the nation. A systematic analysis of spatial data reveals that the diasporic landscape developed in Hong Kong has been polarised by the élite English and Shanghainese speakers on the one end and the Kejia people on the other end. Despite the processes of globalisation, the great spatial mobility of the Hong Kong sojourners and the diasporic landscape they have created have been effectively shaped by their place‐based ethno‐linguistic identities. If the transnational movement of people is considered an important component of globalisation, then this study reinforces the importance of locality and contests the fashionable notion of globalisation as a ‘placeless’ phenomenon. The seemingly displaced empire of Chinese diaspora capitalism, in which Hong Kong has played a crucial part, has remained grounded by pre‐existing place‐specific conditions.     

农村信息化产品市场的经济学分析

我国现阶段的农村信息化产品市场的问题是多方因素共同作用的结果,但笔者认为农村信息化市场的主要问题在于市场的信息不对称性和外部性,也就是由此引起的市场中的企业与农户的囚徒困境、柠檬市场、价格上涨等市场困境和由于农村信息化产品市场的特殊性所带来的负外部效应。     

Global‐local initiatives in FDI: The experience of Shenzhen,China

Abstract: In 2002, China surpassed the USA to become the world's largest foreign investment destination. Many Chinese cities, especially those along the coast, have become hot spots for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The urban development of these Chinese cities, as in most market societies, has increasingly depended upon their global connections. However, it is unclear to what degree the governments of these cities are able to influence the decisions of foreign investors. This paper uses Shenzhen city as a case study to examine how multi‐nationals’ spatial and sectoral patterns have been changed over time and to what degree the local government has been able to influence multinationals’ locational and sectoral selection. It is concluded that Shenzhen has managed to create a strategy to maximise its ability to benefit from global economic forces and to attract multinational manufacturers in the locality, and particularly in increasing its target sector of technology‐intensive industry. This case study demonstrates the importance of a strong city government in managing growth and reacting decisively to globalisation.     

农村居民基础养老金需求水平及财政支持能力动态评价

运用扩展线性支出系统模型测算了2004—2011年中国农村居民人均基本生活需求支出,在此基础上预测了2012—2020年农村基础养老金需求适度水平;并从全国总体层面、中央财政和地方财政3个方面综合分析财政对基础养老金支持改进的可行性。建议在“十二五”末以前适当提高农村基础养老金标准,并合理界定各级财政支付责任;建立基础养老金与农村居民收入、农村居民最低生活标准挂钩的联动机制。     

Overview: Restructuring Chinese space in the new millennium

This collection is concerned with understanding the nature of China’s spatial development during the transition to a socialist market economy. It does so primarily by questioning the applicability of the ‘desakota’ model and extended metropolitan region (EMR) concept to the contemporary Chinese space economy. Yu Zhu’s contribution extends the ‘desakota’ model by applying it to rural areas without the attraction of large cities. Wing‐Shing Tang and Him Chung’s contribution discusses illegal land use and construction to highlight the rural‐urban transition’s negative and disintegrative aspects glossed over by the ‘desakota’ model, which stem from the extension of urban administration to former rural areas and the redistributive effects of land use reform. Andrew Marton sees the original ‘desakota’ model being rejuvenated by introducing the notion of rural agglomeration, a clearer recognition of local administrative structures and an appreciation that development issues now take place within a global‐local framework. George Lin explores the lingering effects of rural origins on Chinese identity and how this affects subsequent social and commercial groups within the Chinese diaspora. Peter Rimmer and Claude Comtois show how changes in China’s transport and telecommunications industry underlie, to a significant degree, the restructuring of China’s space economy and the country’s links to the rest of the world. Overall the contributions highlight that a new consensus will be required for any revised model of the Chinese space economy if this is to provide guidance for planners engaged in restructuring Chinese space in the new millennium.     

Openings in the body of ‘capitalism’: Capital flows and diverse economic possibilities in Kiribati

Much of the post‐development agenda is concerned with decoupling Eurocentric imaginings of development from development practices in ‘remote’ regions and exploring new forms of economy that can enhance local well‐being. In the South Pacific (and elsewhere), small peripheral economies have confronted globalisation in varying ways. Some places, such as the Micronesian island state of Kiribati, have engaged directly with the global economy by investing capital generated locally in international financial markets rather than in domestic industries. Kiribati's trust fund, the Revenue Equalisation Reserve Fund, maintains a balanced portfolio of international equity and fixed income assets that produces a financial return, helping to augment Kiribati's other national income sources. In this paper we explore the results of capital flowing from Kiribati to global financial markets, noting that this alternative development practice can enhance local well‐being.     

农民创业过程中的问题及对策建议

农业是我国国民经济的基础,近些年,随着城市化进程的推进,大量农村劳动力向城市转移,农村劳动力数量不断减少,而土地等农业资源的流转和集中已成为不可逆转的大趋势,这就为农民创业提供了良好的前提。农民创业是实现农民增收、提高农民生活水平、建设新农村、构建和谐社会的有效途径。本文对我国农民创业的现状进行了分析总结,通过分析得出农民创业存在的问题,总结出农民创业的影响因素,并提出推进农民创业的对策建议。     

农业“走出去”与境外农业园区建设

农业“走出去”是国家“走出去”战略的重要组成部分,是统筹利用国际国内“两个市场、两种资源和两类规则”的重要途径,为农业转方式、调结构提供了良好外部机遇。发展境外农业合作园区能够有效提升农业企业投资效率,有利于发挥企业集聚效应,实现较快发展。本研究对当前中国农业“走出去”的发展现状与特征进行分析,总结归纳了境外农业园区建设与发展概况,探讨未来境外农业园区的发展方向。分析认为,境外农业园区建设是农业“走出去”的重要方式之一,应积极引导园区建立开放型招商机制,提升园区内企业的产业化水平,形成产业链配套,带动区内企业集群式发展,加快农业“走出去”步伐,提高农业企业的资源配置能力和竞争能力。     

Participatory natural resource management in rural China: Making and unmaking environmental narratives

Environmental and development discourses in China can be categorised into three narrative motifs framing human–nature relationships: peasant, indigenous, and community. Indigenous and community narratives have been widely adopted by environmental NGOs (eNGOs) in China in promoting community‐based natural resource management projects, but there has been very limited critical research on such phenomena. Analysis of socio‐economic change in two ethnic minority communities in Yunnan shows that neither narrative theme is fully internalised by the relevant communities. Instead narratives may be strategically modified or even rejected by local communities. This is due to different agendas being held by local communities and eNGOs, and two factors pertinent to rural China: the incompatibility of concepts of ‘community’ in Chinese and international contexts results in confusion, and a lack of recent territorial and cultural claims by rural communities since the collectivist era makes it difficult to construct the identity of a community. It remains challenging for eNGOs in China to advocate either community or indigenous narratives in contexts of rapid socio‐economic change.     

六安瓜片品牌经营战略探讨

品牌化程度低是影响历史名茶—六安瓜片市场知名度和可持续发展的一大障碍。因此,必须在强化品牌意识的前提下,通过挖掘地方文化资源和扶持茶业龙头企业以加强其品牌整合能力等措施,来打造六安瓜片茶叶知名品牌,实现其生产规模与效益的统一、茶叶文化与经济的统一,做强做大六安瓜片茶产业,并最终使其走向国际市场。     

农村中小企业债务融资障碍分析及对策研究

摘要：分析了农村中小企业融资的外部环境和企业自身的制约因素。提出了解决农村中小企业融资难的对策,在政策机制方面需要组建专门为农村中小企业服务的政策性金融机构,进一步放开搞活农村金融市场,扶持建立农村中小企业信用担保组织等;农村中小企业自身要探索组建企业产业群信用联保,推行供应链管理、电子商务和第三方物流以减少资金占用,加强诚信建设,提高信用信息公开意识,防止信用道德风险转嫁等。     

中国农村金融生态环境问题研究

摘要：农村金融生态环境的优劣评判依据是农村区域经济的发展和稳定程度,金融法律法规的完善程度及其在农村的执行状况,农村信用环境的健全程度,以及地方政府对农村金融活动的管理方式和介入程度。当前,我国农村金融生态环境面临农村宏观经济的形势严峻,农村金融缺口严重,行政力量对农村金融活动干预失当,且农村金融的市场化程度低,法制环境缺失,社会信用意识淡薄,征信体系建设滞后。因而,要改善农村金融生态环境的现状就必须统筹城乡经济社会发展,消除“二元结构”,促进农村经济发展;规范地方政府行为,建立地方治理与农村金融活动良性互动的关系,同时建立良好的法律和执法体系,为农村金融生态营造良好的法制环境,全面推进信用体系建设,规范农村金融生态的信用秩序。     

Manufacturing

While not as bad as the loss of 80,000 manufacturing jobs in the 1980s, the loss of a further 30,000 jobs in the 1990s showed that the process of restructuring did not stop in 1990. The picture that emerges is more varied than the destruction of the earlier decade. There is certainly evidence of a lean, mean, more export‐orientated group of firms that are competing internationally under the new low protection regime. On the other hand, it is clear that the process of restructuring and the removal of protection did not stop in the 1990s. There has been a sizeable loss of larger factories and a 22 per cent increase in smaller businesses, while surprisingly the level of foreign controlled enterprises has not increased significantly. In terms of manufacturing's contribution to exports there is both good and bad news. Exports of machinery, for example, increased by 518 per cent between 1989 and 1999. The bad news is that this is still only 18 per cent of total dairy exports, 29 per cent of meat, and only marginally ahead of wool exports, which have declined by 58 per cent in value between 1989 and 1999.     

农地城市流转驱动力与农地保护研究

无论在发达国家，还是在发展中国家，农地城市流转现象是其实现工业化和城市化所必须付出的一种代价，已经成为经济发展和城市化、工业化进程中的一个普遍现象。人多地少的国情决定我国农地保护的重要性，但是对处于城市化的加速发展阶段的中国，农地流转必将会持续一段时间，可见，我国农地保护面临的形势不容乐观。本文在他人研究的基础上，认为农地是在地方政府、村经济集体、农民、企业以及居民几大动力主体的相互作用下，在制度缺陷、经济增长、区位状况、城市化以及价值观念驱动力的共同作用下，不断地向城市转移的。最后，提出了保护农地，必须树立科学发展观等对策。     

Experience of Overseas Countryside Development and Construction of “Beautiful Countryside” in Zhejiang

Countryside development paths and phase characters of typical developed countries and regions were analyzed,such as the East Asian Model(Japan and South Korea),and Western European Model(Germany and the Netherlands).The former is based on the big gap between urban and rural development,and the latter is based on the balanced development of urban and rural areas,both of them achieved the world’s leading level of countryside construction.In Zhejiang Province,"China’s Beautiful Countryside"represented by Anji,and"Zhejiang Green Agricultural Product Base"represented by Xianju emerged in the county level.Motivation mechanisms for countryside development in China and abroad were analyzed,including industrial system,infrastructure,ecological environment,and local culture.     

Beyond large‐city‐centred urbanisation: in situ transformationof rural areas in Fujian Province

This paper explores China’s in situ urbanisation and its implications for the paradigm of extended metropolitan areas. Based on preliminary results of the 2000 census, field surveys and interviews, government statistics and documents, and direct observation in Fujian Province of China, a region without much influence of mega‐cities, the analysis shows that in situ urbanisation resulting from the transformation of rural settlements has played an important role since the 1980s. The paper examines major factors contributing to the process of in situ urbanisation, especially the development of township and village enterprises, government policies and foreign investment. Some underlying conditions, such as local historical and geographical conditions and cultural characteristics, high population density and improvement in transport and communications, are also discussed, and the future prospect of the urbanisation pattern in the context of local economic restructuring and urbanisation strategies in the new century is gauged. The paper also assesses the relevance of the paradigm of extended metropolitan areas to the urbanisation pattern, and suggests the need for a conceptual framework focusing on the urbanisation process resulting from bottom‐up rural developments.     

Foreign Affairs

New Zealand's external orientations during the 1990s expanded under conditions of enhanced globalisation and interdependence. Increased external activity heightened the necessity for independent assessment, strong global citizenship credentials, and active multilateralism. This served trade diversification, consolidated the anti‐nuclear policy, and helped to support international law, human rights, and environmental policy objectives. Commonwealth and United Nations membership was utilised to advance these objectives. Relations with Australia attained added institutionalisation, but efforts to forge closer relations with Asia delivered results subject to global economic vicissitudes and reluctance by the United States and Japan to commit to multilateral problem solving. Relations with the South Pacific encountered growing governance, resource management and equity challenges, although New Zealand contributed significantly towards a resolution of a decade of conflict on Bougainville. The public dimension of New Zealand's foreign relations expanded as officials developed increasingly diverse routines of dialogue with local non‐governmental interests.     

Moral Risks in Turning Loan into Share

Turning loan into share is one of the paths to lighten the burden of the state-owned enterprises in China. But there exist three moral risks in this process. It is necessary to establish a series of mechanism of restraining the enterprise, bank and local government to guard against it.     

China's compliance in global environmental affairs

Abstract: As the most populous country on earth with 10 per cent of its rare species of flora and fauna, China's environmental practice is of great importance. Already the country is one of the most polluted places in the world. At least seven out of the ten of the world's most polluted cities are located in China. It is the second largest producer of greenhouse gases after the United States, inflicting heavy, long‐term casualties on its own public health and economic development as well as on those of its close neighbours in the Asia‐Pacific region. How to strike a proper balance between environmental protection and fast economic growth will have an important impact on China's modernisation outcome and its international standing. The country began to pay serious attention to environment problems in the 1970s. Since the adoption of the reform and opening‐up policy in the late 1970s, it has signed or ratified many international treaties dealing with environmental issues. By now, it has entered into most international environmental regimes. But how compliant is China with respect to commitments made to these regimes? How willing and capable is it in complying with international environmental norms and rules? What does sustainable development mean to China? How do red tape, fear, inexperience, and ignorance affect China's efforts to protect its environment? And how do inter‐ministerial wrangling and the growth of green NGOs within China affect its compliance? This paper tries to answer these questions.