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8. Recent Developments in Yangtze River Delta and Singapore's Investment
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Chapter
- Additional Information
YangtzeRiverDeltaandSingapore’sInvestment 155 8 Recent Developments in Yangtze River Delta and Singapore’s Investment Chen Wen and Sun Wei INTRODUCTION YangtzeRiverDeltaregion,coversatotalofsixteencities,namely,Shanghai City,eightcitiesinJiangsuProvince(Nanjing,Suzhou,Wuxi,Changzhou, Zhenjiang,Yangzhou,TaizhouandNantong),andsevencitiesinZhejiang Province (Hangzhou, Ningbo, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Zhoushan and Taizhou).TheregionislocatedatthejuncturezoneoftheYangtzeRiver andChina’scoastalregionswithfavourablenaturalconditionandprominent locational advantages, which is the core of China’s coastal and riverside “T”-shapedstrategicaxisregion.Thelandhasanareaof110,000square kilometres, accounting for 1.1 per cent of the country, with 97 million residentpopulation(about6.3percentofthecountry)and3.39trillion regional GDP (about 18.6 per cent of the country) by the end of 2005. Moreover,theindustrialscale,technologyandbrandsofsteel,petrochemicals, automobiles, and textiles and so on as well as urban development have obviousadvantagesinthecountry.Ofthenation’seconomicallystrongest 08RegEDC.indd155 7/3/0910:03:42AM 156 ChenWenandSunWei thirty-five cities, the Yangtze River Delta region accounts for ten; out of thenation’stophundredcounties,theYangtzeRiverDeltaregionaccounts for thirty-seven. More than 400 of the world’s top 500 enterprises have settled in this region.Therefore, it can be said that Yangtze River Delta regionisoneofChina’sleadingregionwiththefastestgrowthrate,highest degreeofopenness,superiorinvestmentenvironmentandcompetitiveness. ThisregionmostlikelywillbethefirstChineseregiontobeamongthe topregionaleconomiesintheworld. Rapidindustrializationandurbanizationleadtotheregion’stremendous changesinpopulation,landuse,aswellaseconomicspatialstructureand patterns.Globalizationandlocalizationhaveexertedthegreatestimpacton thesespatialchanges.However,takingintoaccounttheeffectsofglobalization on regional development, scholars have called for the “globalizing” of regional development (Coe et al., 2004; Yeung 2005). Globalization and thedispersionofglobalcapitalhavetransformedcorecitiesindeveloping countriesintoglobalizingcities.Theyareoftenthemostglobalizedplaces and the focus of foreign direct investment (FDI) in these countries, and moresignificantly,emergingnodesoftheglobaleconomy(WeiandLeung 2005). The Shanghai-centred Yangtze Delta has especially experienced a massive ongoing infusion of FDI. While increasingly competing globally asanemergingglobalcity,Shanghaiisfacingseverechallengesfromother globalizingcitiesinChina,especiallythoseintheYangtzeDelta.Themost seriouscompetitortoShanghai’seffortstoattractFDIanddevelophightech industry is Suzhou, where capital from Singapore has helped set up the new townships as well as new industrial districts, which has transformed themoderncityofSuzhouanddriventherapidspatialsuccession intheDelta. At the same time, the expansion has resulted in the rapid spread of built-upareas,thedwindlingofecologicalspaceandtheexcessiveloadon theenvironment.Accordingtothe1998and2005datainterpretedfrom remotesensingimages,constructionlandincreasedby650,000hectaresin theregionwhilearablelanddecreasedby1.2millionhectares.Thetotalarea of arable land was only 3.5 million hectares, and the agricultural acreage per capita is only about 0.04 hectare. About 70 per cent of the Taihu Lakesuffersfromseriouseutrophicationandtheoutbreakofbluealgaeis common in summer. More than 85 per cent of the surface water in the HangjiahuPlainregioncanbecategorizedasundrinkableVwater. Thischapterwillfirstlyshowthechangesinspatialdistributionofthe population,landuseandeconomicgrossoutputinthisregion,whichgive anideaofthespatialdevelopmentsuccessionprocessoftheYangtzeRiver 08RegEDC.indd156 7/3/0910:03:43AM [44.200.210.43] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 09:39 GMT) YangtzeRiverDeltaandSingapore’sInvestment 157 Deltaregioninrecentyears.TheimpactandroleofSingaporeaninvestment in Jiangsu’s regional economic development is then discussed, especially on Suzhou’s growth. Finally, the chapter will analyse the sustainability of spatialdevelopmentandpredictitsfuturetrendasanimportantguidance forfutureinvestment. SPATIALSUCCESSIONINTHEYANGTZEDELTA With...