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issued for setting up the zones.
This was to be one of the principal features of Deng Xiaoping's readjustment policy for the Chinese economy at large.
6. Two provinces (Guangdong, Fujian) and three municipalities (Beijing, Tianjian, Shanghai) were authorized to study the possibility of setting up special economic zones. The island of Hainan Dao, in the South China Sea, has also recently been accorded a similar status (1981). Four zones are now operative and will form the basis for research: Xiamen (Fujian), Zhouhai, Shenzhen, and Shantou (Guangdong). The SEZ of Shenzhen is the most important development to date.
1.
The Shenzhen economic zone is adjacent to the New Territories of Hong Kong. It is bound in the north by a mountain range that forms a natural barrier between the small city of Shenzhen and the province of Guangdong. It has an area of 327 km2, including the one square kilometre of Shekou Industrial District under the management of the China Merchant's Steam Navigation Company. The rest of the zone is administered by a special office of the Provincial Government set up for the development of the zone. In Shenzhen SEZ, the Chinese hope to attract investment in light industry (electronics and textiles for the most part), agriculture, livestock breeding, fishery, small export processing firms, real estate and tourism.
8.
Zhouhai SEZ borders Macao. It comprises 6.8 km2, in which light and heavy industry, agriculture, livestock breeding, fishery, housing and tourism can be undertaken. Reportedly, it is expected that foreign banking interests will be active in promoting local investment in this zone.
9. The Shantou SEZ with an area of 3.3km2 is situated near Longhu in the eastern suburb of Shantou, north of Hong Kong. Eight km2 have been set aside as a regulated area to be used exclusively for export processing.
10.
The Huli SEZ of Xiamen is situated seven kilometres to the north of the city of Xiamen. It comprises 2.5 km2, to be used for export-oriented processing facilities. Factories, enterprises, and joint ventures may also be located within the city of Xiamen.
Organisation of the research and questions to be studied
11. The research project will provide two important types of information:
a first stage will consist of a survey of existing data concerning the functioning of the Special Economic Zones in the four above-mentioned areas. This will include an up-dating of the available published and unpublished information both from official Chinese sources inside Guangdong Province and from foreign investors, banks and other private foreign sources (such as the JETRO in Tokyo). Once a map of the investment activities, actual and planned, has been drawn up, and an overview of the functioning of the zones has been carried out, this information will form the basis for a study that uses the SEZ experience to describe the Chinese development strategies now being evolved and implemented. It will attempt to answer some of the following questions:
- how have the recent experiments with foreign investment and capital been apprehended and integrated into Chinese planning at the regional and the national level ?
- will increased amounts of foreign investment, in either traditional or
new forms, modify the economic goals and growth rhythms inside the country; how will. experiences inside the SEZs be relayed inward to the economy at large ?
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