Table 2.1 Provinical Development Strengths (cont'd)
Strengths
New Planning and Business Freedoms
A flexible attitude by Government officials towards regulations.
Management with good personal contacts and skilled at manipulating these contacts to their own advantage.
Free market pricing for most goods now dominates
Much foreign exchange earned by enterprises involved in foreign trade can be retained.
Import tariffs on materials for outward processing are usually zero.
Bureaucracy is being minimised.
New relaxed currency controls
Access to additional foreign exchange at prices close to a “free market" level.
Certain industries are tending to agglomerate in certain areas.
Environmental controls can be avoided.
Emerging Property Market
Businesses now have the freedom to buy, retain or sell factory and office space in accordance with their needs.
The newly emerging housing markets (and other reforms in the housing sector) are an incentive for many workers to increase their earnings.
Political/Institutional Freedoms
Freedom to experiment and a natural local propensity to adopt "capitalist" values
Anything not expressly prohibited by the Central Government is allowed
Much decentralised decision making processes
Any Spatial Implications and Other Comments
This process is likely to continue.
Long history of collective (rather than outright state) ownership
The right to undertake its own planning policies
There is often competition amongst local authorities for new investments. Areas can become “flavour of the month”.
The province, therefore, has an advantage over the rest of China.
Local authorities can set their own priorities and can create the right investment climates for any types of industry they are particularly keen to attract.
The right to raise its own taxes
The right to supply Central Government with only fixed amounts of
revenue
The right to legislate
Wide range of investment opportunities for foreigners and a wide range of investment vehicles.
Unofficial acceptance of polluting industries.
The worst polluting industries are likely to be confined to the edges of the Pearl River Delta
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