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13 Perspective and Prospects of China’s Pan-Pearl River Delta Anthony G.O. Yeh and Jiang Xu Signed in June 2004, the ‘Pan-PRD Regional Cooperation Framework Agreement’ officially launched Pan-Pearl River Delta (Pan-PRD) regionalization. Known as ‘9+2’, Pan-PRD regionalization represents a new collaborative initiative to develop an integral regional economy in China. It is believed that the formation of a more complementary regional organization can overcome the problems rooted in the administrative fragmentation that is negatively affecting urban and regional development. Justified as an important institutional tool for fostering regional economic growth, regional cooperation is becoming prevalent worldwide in today’s increasingly globalized economy. However, Pan-PRD regionalization appears to be a distinct case, given the huge jurisdictional span of this region and China’s peculiar institutional setting. Involving one-fifth of the country’s territory and one-third of its population, the Pan-PRD project has intrigued scholars and policy-makers who advocate the concept of regional cooperation. At the same time, however, many of them have doubts about the cohesion of this massive region.Although the 11 member provinces and special administrative regions are mostly contiguous and located in the Pearl River Basin, and Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong Province have a relatively long history of market-led interaction, the extent to which an integrative region can be formed remains open to question. There is a pressing need for serious investigations of the issues related to the development of the Pan-PRD region. The chapters of this book identify the economic and political characteristics of this region, analyze the constraints on Pan-PRD regionalization, and put forward innovative strategies and suggestions. Theoretically, four main conclusions about this new attempt at regional cooperation can be drawn from these studies. First, although the mega regions in different parts of the world are all the result of rapid transformation in the face of globalization,each has unique rationales, developmental patterns, fiscal capacities, managerial abilities, and levels of experience with regional governance and planning. In addition, they all continue to evolve in diverse political contexts and economic landscapes. The roles played by the public and private sectors 232 Anthony G.O. Yeh and Jiang Xu in regional formation vary in form and sophistication (Vogel 2010). Unlike the multi-level governance of Europe and the multi-polity system of the US, China has witnessed strong intervention by the state and an increasingly complex interscalar order. The establishment of an effective cooperative framework in China must take into account the nature of the political economy. Second, uneven development and the presence of different institutional systems within the Pan-PRD region pose great challenges for decision makers in the creation of a common market. Although the economies of Guangdong and Hong Kong are becoming increasingly integrated, only loose ties remain among those of the other provinces in the Pan-PRD. Given its huge size and variety of economic and political structures, Pan-PRD regionalization offers an interesting and sophisticated case study with which to illustrate the issues involved in regional cooperation. Third, the members of the Pan-PRD are not efficiently connected at present, which has generated growing demand for the development of regional infrastructure to minimize regional disparity. Infrastructure development is seen as an effective means of exploiting the comparative advantages of member provinces and facilitating regional economic development. Finally, urban and industrial development in the Pan-PRD should be considered in a new and broader regional context to increase land-use efficiency and optimize resource allocation. Based on the economic and geographic characteristics of individual provinces, the integrated development of the entire region could enhance overall regional competitiveness and promote the regional economy in a sustainable way. The studies in this book also identify the major problems that Pan-PRD cooperation faces, and propose constructive solutions to promoting regional cooperation. Hence, they have significant practical implications for the development of this region. In Chapter 4, for example, Junde Liu makes an innovative attempt to develop a cooperative framework for the Pan-PRD region in the context of political fragmentation and the ‘one country, two systems’ structure. In Chapter 5, Baojin Yang and Dongxiao Jin highlight the importance of strengthening the leadership role of the PRD city cluster in the development of the Pan-PRD region. Taking their argument a step further, Jiang Xu and Anthony Yeh in Chapter 6 outline the major issues for the region’s political and economic development. They depict the way in which...

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