China's Pan-Pearl River Delta: Regional Cooperation and Development

8. Regional Transportation Development Strategy for the Pan-Pearl River Delta

Regional Transportation Development Strategy for the Pan-Pearl River Delta Xiaohong Chen, Tanfeng Li and Ye Li The Pearl River Delta (PRD) comprises Guangzhou, Shenzhen and thirteen other cities and counties (districts) in Guangdong Province. It was one of the earliest regions to implement economic reform, and is one of the fastest growing areas of China. By the end of 2006, its GDP was RMB 214.24 billion, 10.2 per cent of the national total, and its GDP per capita was RMB 49,153, 3.1 times the national average. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the PRD began to encounter numerous problems, including a limited geographical area for growth, a major scarcity of energy resources, large gaps in infrastructure and the deterioration of the living environment. An obvious choice to resolve these problems was to extend the PRD region to achieve more balanced regional development. The recently proposed concept of the Pan-Pearl River Delta (Pan-PRD), or ‘9+2’ (cooperation between nine provinces and two Special Administrative Regions), is not simply an expansion of the Greater PRD (comprising the PRD, Hong Kong and Macao), but embraces a more extensive and multi-layered form of regional cooperation. The extension of the PRD to the Pan-PRD is both a quantum leap in social and economic development and a breakthrough in the theory and practice of regional development. To supplement the preparation of the ‘Outline Plan of Regional Highway and Waterway Infrastructure Facilities in Pan-PRD by the Ministry of Transportation’ (Ministry of Transportation 2005), and to foster the actual cooperation in the PanPRD , the ‘Regional Strategic Transportation Development Study for the Pan-PRD’ was commissioned in May 2004 (Faculty of Transport Engineering of Tongji University [hereafter FTE] and Guangdong Transport Consultation Centre [hereafter GDTCC] 2005). The study concentrated on the obstacles to regional transportation development, and conducted a comprehensive analysis of the objectives, strategies and implementation measures of the transportation strategy. This chapter is based on that study, and provides a general introduction to the Pan-PRD regional transportation strategy, its positioning and methodology. 8 140 Xiaohong Chen, Tanfeng Li and Ye Li From PRD to Pan-PRD: Regional Development and the Demand for Transportation Geography and structural characteristics of the Pan-PRD The geographical location of the Pan-PRD covers the Pearl River Basin, which spans eastern and western China and covers a variety of economic systems. The Pan-PRD concept is a new type of regional cooperation based on different political and economic systems, spatial depths and levels of development. It is significantly different from the Yangtze River Delta Region (YRD) and the Beijing-TianjinTangshan Region (BTT). The Pan-PRD covers two million square km, which is equivalent to 21 per cent of China’s total area (Table 8.1). Centred on the PRD, it includes Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan to the west in a gradual progression from the coastal area to the interior. To the north of the Pan-PRD is the YRD, and to the south is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Figure 8.1). The international transportation hubs for passengers and freight are concentrated in the southeast. Together, the physical characteristics, economic structure, distribution of energy sources and location of the transportation hubs mean that the main intra-regional economic and transportation connections occur along an east-west corridor. Region Area (per 1000 sq km) % in China Population (million) % in China GDP (billion) % in China YRD 110 1.15 83.22 6.33 3953.17 18.75 PRD1 41.7 0.43 44.47 3.38 2142.43 10.16 Pan-PRD2 2,007.9 20.92 455.07 34.62 6,686.63 31.71 National 9,600 100 1,314.48 100 21,087.1 100 Table 8.1 Overview of regional development (2006) Notes: PRD population equals the number of permanent residents at the end of the year; Pan-PRD data only includes nine provinces in the Chinese Mainland. Source: National Statistics Bureau 2007. There are several different levels of economic development within the PanPRD . Hong Kong and Macao are at the highest level, Guangdong and Fujian are at the second level and the inland provinces are at the third level. The situation can be better understood by comparing the provinces of Guangdong and Guizhou. In 2006, 141 Regional Transportation Development Strategy for the Pan-Pearl River Delta Figure 8.1 Pan-PRD geographical...