Economic Development Zone Research Articles

Dynamic Evolution of the Operating Efficiency of Development Zones in China

The efficient development of Economic and Technological Development Zones (ETDZs) across China has been key to the country’s economic transformation. Despite this, few studies have addressed the dynamic characteristics of the efficiency of ETDZs. Taking China’s 115 national ETDZs established before 2010 as the research sample, this study measures the comprehensive operating efficiency of ETDZs and identifies dynamic characteristics of that efficiency throughout the period 2011–2017, using a three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and the Markov method. This research also explores the relationship between the operation efficiency of ETDZs and urban economic development. The results indicate that the operating efficiency of national ETDZs was generally low, and subject to a downward trend over the study period; the efficiency of ETDZs in the western region was found to be higher than that in the central and eastern areas. It was found that operating efficiency was stable in terms of the types of transfer witnessed, and the results emphasize the difficulty of achieving leapfrog development in a relatively short time. In addition, medium-high coupling coordination was detected in the relationship between urban social and economic development and the operating efficiency of ETDZs. When the operating efficiency of the ETDZ was high, this coupling coordination improved significantly. Finally, most of China’s ETDZs remain in a factor-driven stage in their development, with their expansion occurring at the expense of efficiency. Based on these results, this paper suggests that the government should pay greater attention to the overall efficiency and growth quality in the sustainable development of the country’s ETDZs.

The Role of Competition in the Development of Small Industrial Zones

This article examines the role and importance of competition in the development of small industrial zones from a scientific and theoretical point of view, in which the important aspects of the development of economic zones through investment are discussed in detail.

ECONOMIC ZONES SITE SELECTION IN BUTUAN CITY USING MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING APPROACH AND GIS TECHNIQUES

Abstract. Development of economic zones has been rapid in recent years and considered as one of the effective ways of promoting regional growth. Butuan City is categorized as a highly urbanized city and a regional center of Caraga which brings a huge impact to the economic growth in the region. Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach (MCDMA) using the pairwise comparison method of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Geographic Information System techniques were integrated to identify the suitable locations for economic zones. There were nine (9) criteria used in this study such as roads, transport hubs, commercial areas, police station, electric post, water bodies, slope, land use and labor force. Suitability map was produced and used as basis for the analysis. The result of the analysis shows that in Butuan City, an area of 32.15 sq. km is considered highly suitable, 365.96 sq. km is moderately suitable, and 248.43 sq. km is low suitable. Most of the areas are considered as moderately suitable for the establishment of economic zones. The information derived from this study would be helpful to the local government of Butuan City and other agencies in determining suitable areas for economic zones. With this information, they may be able to implement solutions in finding the best location for each ecozone which will attract investors and create employment and other opportunities in the city.

Opportunities, challenges and countermeasures of the development of big data industry in the state-level Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone

The global information technology revolution is promoting the development of new economy at the core of big data, and the big data industry has become the strategic commanding point in competition among countries. Development of the large data industry in the state-level Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone has a brilliant future. The state-level Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone should focus on the development of big data services, which are related to the ‘3 + X’ industry system and big data products manufacturing. At the same time, the state-level Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone should plan the implementation path, focusing on the implementation of infrastructure construction, industrial training, strengthening the ranks of personnel, investment and six other projects. Finally, state-level Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone should put forward and carry out measures from the following five perspectives: perfecting organisation mechanism, reinforcing policy assurance, improving the supporting industries and optimising the investment environment. Keywords: State level, big data, industry, opportunity, countermeasures.

Positive effect of village debt on land transfer: Evidence from county-level panel data of village finance in Zhejiang Province.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of village debt on land transfer. Based on the county-level panel data of village finance and land transfer in 90 counties and 4 economic development zones of Zhejiang Province from 2013 to 2017, this paper carried out multivariate statistical analysis and set a fixed effect model to control the endogenous influence of region and time. It found that village debt as a pressure may encourage village committees to promote rural land transfer, and then especially promote land flows into agricultural firms; as a mechanism, the burden of village organization’s transactional debt (historical debt and administrative debt) is the key to promoting the rural land flow to agricultural enterprises; through further analysis, it is found that the village committee seeks "win-win" opportunities by intervening in land circulation to ensure the rights and interests of farmers and to obtain village benefits from them. This paper finds that this kind of push effect has the threshold, the debt will play a significant role in promoting when the debt rate is between 4.65% and 7.9%. In addition, there is regional heterogeneity in the contribution of debt, which exists only in plain, non-coastal and high-dependence areas. The results of this paper verify the view that "community mechanism and market mechanism are embedded and supported each other in acquaintance society" in the theory of community governance. In practice, it provides a realistic basis for policy makers to implement the policy of encouraging farmland circulation and properly deal with the problem of village debt.

Distance or Intimacy：The Moderating Role of Alliance Routines in the Relationship between Partnership and Innovation Performance

With the rapid development of global economy, it is a universal phenomenon that the improvement of enterprise innovation ability increasingly depends on R&D investment. Innovation activities are the result of the interaction of a variety of heterogeneous resources, so it is an important path for enterprises to obtain innovation resources through alliances and other cooperative relationships. The study of both theory and practice has shown that the cooperative relationship, no matter loose or close, is an important path for enterprises to obtain external innovation resources. However, scholars have different views on the effect of the two types of relationship on enterprise innovation. Therefore, this study will explore how to choose the right partners by identifying the roles of different types of relationship in the process of enterprise innovation, thereby guiding enterprise innovation activities.We randomly select a sample of 295 high-tech enterprises from the manufacturing industry in Hefei High-tech Zone, Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone and Hefei Xinzhan District. The results show that neither strong nor weak alliance partnership in the dense network is conducive to improving enterprise innovation ability, while maintaining the appropriate strength of partnership is the most conducive to enterprise innovation performance. However, alliance routines can reduce the above mentioned effects. In the sparse network, the stronger the partnership, the more obvious the innovation performance of enterprises, and alliance routines also strengthen the relationship between them.The theoretical contributions are as follows: Firstly, we expand the previous literature on relationship strength and innovation performance, and study the effect of external relationships on innovation performance by bringing individual network and collective network into the same framework, which supplements the perspective of existing studies in explaining the relationship strength paradox. It is found that the effect of relationship strength on innovation performance is not the same under different network density conditions. Secondly, we reveal the moderating effect of alliance routines on relationship strength and innovation performance under different network density conditions by introducing alliance routines into this research framework. Thirdly, we deep the study on alliance routines, and provide important insight regarding the follow-up research in this field and how to improve innovation performance through properly levering alliance routines.The current research points out several directions for future research: Firstly, the variable of partnership can be measured from the perspective of relationship quality, relationship symmetry and relationship persistence, etc. Secondly, alliance routines may have different effects on radical innovation and incremental innovation. This study mainly investigates the moderating effect of alliance routines, and future research can explore the effect on radical innovation and incremental innovation. Thirdly, future research can be combined with different knowledge attributes to study the effect of relationship strength between enterprises and customers, suppliers, distributors and intermediaries on innovation performance under different network density conditions.

Developing Economic Zone and Industrial Park in Thanh Hoa Province (Vietnam) towards Green Growth

Green growth is the current development trend of countries in general and Vietnam in particular, aiming to effectively use natural resources, contribute to poverty alleviation and create a driving force for sustainable economic development. The development of economic zone (EZ) and industrial parks (IPs) in Thanh Hoa has contributed significantly to attracting investment, developing the local economy, creating jobs, and social security. However, the development of these zones also creates consequences on environmental pollution and inefficient use of local resources. This article provides a picture of the current development situation of EZ and IPs in Thanh Hoa, as well as solutions to develop them in the direction of Green growth.

Classification of the Development Areas of the South Transdanubian Region (Hungary)

The Hungarian Government decided on the establishment of the South Transdanubian Economic Development Zone. The identification of the areas formed by clustering settlements of similar features will help better target development goals and funds to the region. The development concepts of the counties (forming the region) were reviewed and each of the 656 settlements of the region were put into categories. The categories were formed according to the county concepts; classification of the space followed all of the area classifications mentioned in them: development goals, priorities, strategic categories or sectoral targets. It has been found that 291 settlements have not been targeted by the county concepts at all. Further 177 ones are classified as deprived areas either because of their peripheral situation or their underdevelopment status by law. 62 settlements are mentioned as ones to be targeted with either economic development programmes or classified as growth zones. The latter category consists of 26 settlements, which are either growth, industrial, innovative or logistic centres according to the development concepts. Tourism related developments are targeted and may be outbreak points in 176 settlements. The threat to the development of rural areas due to shrinking medium sized cities must be addressed. Our review and classification of South Transdanubian Region’s settlements adds the value of the multifaceted approach through the application of the county development concepts.

Identifying key areas of imbalanced supply and demand of ecosystem services at the urban agglomeration scale: A case study of the Fujian Delta in China

The coordinated supply and demand of ecosystem services (ESs) is important for ensuring regional sustainable development. However, research identifying key areas of imbalanced supply and demand of ESs at the urban agglomeration scale is limited. Therefore, in this study, using the Fujian Delta urban agglomeration of China as the research area, based on multi-source data, and analysis tools, such as ArcGIS, ENVI, and GeoDa, we constructed a research framework and indicator system for ESs supply and demand to determine the spatial change law, matching degree, and coupling coordination degree (CCD) of the ESs. On this basis, the key areas of imbalanced supply and demand of ESs were identified, and optimization strategies were proposed. The results showed that (1) there is obvious spatial heterogeneity between ESs supply and demand in the study area, and different degrees of spatial changes occurred with urbanization. Specifically, areas with large changes were concentrated in urban core areas and economic development zones. (2) The matching degree between ESs supply and demand is quite diverse and shows a trend of polarization. Under the influence of urbanization, some cities began facing ESs supply shortages. (3) Overall, the CCD between ESs supply and demand in the study area is in a state of mild incoordination, but with increasing urbanization, some cities have turned into a state of extreme incoordination. Our results indicate that the ESs supply and demand status in some cities at the urban agglomeration scale has become increasingly severe. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on certain “key areas” to formulate optimization strategies. For key areas with “low supply-high demand” and extreme incoordination, the population and land use intensity should be controlled to reduce the ESs demand level. Meanwhile, for key areas with “high supply-low demand” and extreme incoordination, the utilization efficiency of ecological resources should be improved to enhance the ESs supply capacity. The results of this study will help decision-makers optimize the relationship between ESs supply and demand in order to achieve the sustainable development of urban agglomeration.

Formation of supra-professional competencies sought in special economic development zones in graduates of technical universities

The problem and goal. Modern economy needs engineers having necessary competencies, able to impart a positive impetus to the development of further competitiveness of enterprises located in Priority Social and Economic Development Areas (PSEDA) and throughout entire Russia. The technical higher educational institutions face the mission to secure not only full-value professional training of engineering personnel, but also retraining of the existing specialists within a short time. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the efficiency of the adaptive organisational/pedagogical system of supplementary professional education aimed at developing trainees’ supra-professional competencies within the system of supplementary professional education. Materials and methods. The study involved 146 various-level top managers of PSEDA resident enterprises and 840 persons who were trained under 19 supplementary professional programmes at 43 advanced training courses structured in accordance with the educational services plan of the Centre for supplementary professional education (SPE). The development of trainees’ supra-professional competencies was monitored through observation, questioning and interviewing. The Likert satisfaction scale was used to analyse the collected data. Results. It was established that employers highly appreciate supra-professional competencies as a necessary component of specialist’s qualification characteristics. Following the survey results, it was revealed that 83 % of specialists out of 1000 interviewed persons had not attended any courses of supplementary professional education over the previous 5 years. The efficiency of personnel retraining was determined by analysing the changes in the company’s performance, based on the results of interviewing the employers; the growth of quantitative and qualitative indicators was 62% in 2018, 74% in 2019 and 93% in 2020. Discussion and conclusion. The components of the adaptive organisational/pedagogical system proposed by the authors made it possible to increase the efficiency of educational activities in the system of supplementary professional education, which was confirmed by a pedagogical experiment. The efficiency was determined through numerical measurement tools allowing accurate diagnostics of the experiment participants’ success.

Unfortified Settlements of the Cheptsa Culture (9th–13th Centuries): Ambiguity of Interpretation and Delimitation of Boundaries

Unfortified rural settlements have traditionally been detected by the presence of surface finds in tilled soil or of a cultural layer in test pits, by the conformity of the area to known landscape features, and by the absence of salient signs of defensive structures. The totality of these parameters is not always an unambiguous indicator of an unfortified settlement. Owing to intense tillage in the late 20th century, affecting many sites in Central Russia and the western Urals, their outward features have been obliterated, and erosion has resulted in a gradual displacement of habitation deposits from watersheds and slopes to negative landforms. Given these destructions and the resulting unreliability of traditional archaeological criteria, the most efficient way of revealing unfortified settlements, delineating their boundaries, and tentatively reconstructing their layouts, is to use multidisciplinary approach. This study focuses on medieval unfortified settlements in northern Udmurtia—Nizhnebogatyrskoye I, and Kushmanskoye II and III. Their outward features are virtually identical. They were explored using geophysical prospection, soil drilling, and archaeological excavations. On the basis of the results, types of settlement were reliably determined and boundaries of cultural layer were delimited. In all cases, preliminary interpretations were rejected. Kushmanskoye III is shown to be a fortified settlement, and Kushmanskoye II is likely to have been a medieval economic development zone without any structures. In the case of Nizhnebogatyrskoye I, its previously determined boundaries, deduced from the distribution area of finds and landscape features, were substantially corrected.

Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Higher Vocational Education Based on CiteSpace

Based on the CiteSpace, the core Chinese journals in CNKI general library from 2005 to September 2020 were searched, 2855 papers on innovation and entrepreneurship were obtained and analyzed. The development of innovation and entrepreneurship in Higher Vocational Education in China was objectively analyzed by drawing the knowledge map of the research authors, research institutions and research topics in this field. The results show that the research authors and research institutions form less cooperation, in the research institutions, with the increasing number of coastal economic development zones, vocational education innovation and entrepreneurship research main force to the relatively developed areas of the transfer. Research is carried out on hot issues such as political education, modern apprenticeship system and the integration of dictatorship. It is suggested that we should continue to strengthen the research on the integration of “proprietary” and pay attention to the improvement of the curriculum system and teaching methods according to local conditions. The specific content of innovation and entrepreneurship education should be improved to diversify innovation and entrepreneurship.

中国长江三角洲经济圈的发展计划与外国人投资方向研究

中国长江三角洲经济圈的发展计划与外国人投资方向研究

Dow plans South China specialties hub

Dow plans to build a $250 million specialty chemical plant in Zhanjiang, China. The US company has signed a letter of intent with the local economic development zone that targets the construction o...

External Economic Factors Of Development Of The Industrial Structure Of The Economy Of The Pacific Russia

The socio-economic development of Pacific Russia is traditionally associated with the active involvement of its natural resource and production potential in the integration processes of the Asia-Pacific region of the world. An important factor that stimulates the foreign economic activity of production is also the favorable economic and geographical position of the region. The aim of the work is to study the influence of foreign economic factors on the formation of the sectoral structure of the subjects of the Far Eastern Federal District (FEFD). Currently, the positive effect of foreign economic activity in the regions is limited to the "backward" structure of the economy of most subjects of the Far Eastern Federal District (a high share of extractive industries, poor development of manufacturing and services), which has developed due to the uneven distribution of demographic, production and infrastructure potentials. To assess the uneven development of subjects, it is proposed to use the methods of sectoral analysis of the economy, as well as the method of zoning the territory of the Far Eastern Federal District by the specifics of economic activity, incl. commodity structure of exports and imports. Thus, on the territory of Pacific Russia, there are two zones of economic development - 1) "northern" and 2) "southern", differing in the combination of factors and living conditions of the population, the sectoral structure of the economy and foreign economic activity. The subjects of the "southern" zone are distinguished by a higher level of demographic, production and infrastructural potential, as well as a relatively high share of processing and service activities in the sectoral structure of the economy. At the same time, a common feature of all regions of Pacific Russia is noted - the predominance in the commodity structure of exports of products with low added value (raw materials and materials), and in the structure of imports - products of manufacturing industries (machinery and equipment).

Psychological Status and Correlated Factors of Primary Medical Staff During the COVID-19 Outbreak in Hefei City, China.

ObjectiveTo investigate the mental illness and correlated factors of primary medical staff during the COVID-19 outbreak in Hefei city, China.MethodsA total of 180 primary medical staff were randomly selected from seven community hospitals in Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone as a study group. One hundred and eighty-two health people were recruited as the control group. The self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Psychological questionnaire of public health emergencies were distributed to them for evaluation.ResultsThe score of SAS, SDS in study group was higher than that in control group [(35.57±10.39) vs (31.31±7.98); (44.16±8.46) vs (41.47±9.47)] (t=4.371, P< 0.001; t=2.849, P=0.005). The fear subscale and total score in the psychological questionnaire of sudden public health events were negatively correlated with age (r=−0.216, P=0.004; r=−0.154, P=0.039). Marriage was negatively correlated with depression subscales in psychological questionnaires of SAS, SDS and sudden public health events (r=−0.184, P=0.013; r=−0.298, P<0.001; r=−0.161, P=0.031; r=−0.147, P=0.049). Education level was positively correlated with the total score of a psychological questionnaire for sudden public health events (r=0.151, P=0.043); Logistic regression analysis showed that marital status was a protective factor of psychological abnormality.ConclusionIt is necessary to pay attention to the psychological status of primary medical staff, especially the young unmarried medical staff.

Effects of Children's Outdoor Physical Activity in the Urban Neighborhood Activity Space Environment.

The rapid development of cities results in many public health and built-up environmental problems, which have vital impacts on children's growth environment, the development of children, and city contradictions. There is a lack of children being a main concern when constructing new urban areas or reconstructing old districts. Children's activity spaces tend to be standardized and unified (kit, fence, and carpet) “KFC style” designs, which leads to the urban neighborhood space and the environment being insufficient to attract children to conduct activities. Therefore, starting from the urban neighborhood space environment, this paper explores what kind of spatial environment is needed for children's physical activity and its impact on children's physical activity. Taking six residential areas in the Changchun Economic Development Zone as the research object, based on the theory of children's ability development and game value, this paper uses the Woolley and Lowe evaluation tool to quantify the impact of the theory on the urban neighborhood space environment and children's physical activity. It can be confirmed that there is a significant correlation between the spatial characteristics of an urban neighborhood and the general signs of the environment on the duration and intensity of the physical activity of children. The results show that: (1) the differences in children's ages result in differences in the duration and intensity of children's physical activity in the urban neighborhood space environment; (2) the open space factor of the neighborhood space has the most significant influence on the duration of children's physical activity; (3) in terms of the environmental characteristics, whether children can be provided with education and learning opportunities has a significant impact on the duration of children's physical activity; (4) there is a significant positive correlation between children's age and the duration and intensity of the physical activity, exercise type, and imaginative activity. These results show that the urban neighborhood space environment can affect the duration of children's physical activity. In future urban residential area planning and design, urban children can meet the self-demand of physical activity in the neighborhood space through the reasonable balance and combination of neighborhood space characteristics and environmental characteristics.

A Grey Multi-Level Evaluation of Industrial Park Ecology Based on a Coefficient of Variation-Attribute Hierarchy Model

China entered a new era, and the construction of an ecological civilization and green development has been raised to a new strategic height. As the lifeblood of the national economy, industrial parks significantly contribute to economic growth. However, they also generate significant pollution, damaging the ecological environment. It is urgent to ecologically transform traditional industrial parks. This requires identifying methods to correctly and objectively evaluate the ecological level of industrial parks, and provide ecological construction proposals for the government and industrial parks. In this study, the comprehensive evaluation weight was determined by introducing a variation coefficient and an Attribute Hierarchy Model (AHM). The ecological level of four representative eco-industrial parks was then quantitatively evaluated using a grey multi-level evaluation method. The ecological construction level of the four industrial parks was as follows. The Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) was rated at a “very good” level; and the Suzhou industrial park, Dalian economic and technological development zone, and Fushun mining group were rated at a “good” level. Six dimensions were studied. Of these, policy management had the highest weight, and the total weight of policy management and economic development approached 50%. The result shows that industrial parks can attract innovative enterprises and talents through the policy guidance of local government to improve the level of green innovation technology and cleaner production technology. Then, the ecological level of the industrial parks will be improved. This study enriched the theory and practice of ecological evaluation of industrial parks and provided a reference for the ecological construction of traditional industrial parks.

Analysis of Bus Accessibility Based on GIS and Big Data of Crowd -- Taking Wansheng Economic Development Zone as an example

Public transportation issues are increasingly becoming a key constraint to the sustainable development of urban economic and social development. Based on crowd big data and GIS spatial analysis methods, this article analyzes the accessibility of the public transportation in Wansheng Economic and Technological Development Zone (hereinafter referred to as the development zone). A comprehensive evaluation and analysis was conducted to study the matching relationship between population density and existing public transportation stations, and to propose the optimal suggestions. The results show that the overall public transportation accessibility in the development zone is average level, and the public transportation accessibility is better in the densest crowded areas, but in the east and southeast of the development zone, crowd activities are poorly matched with the public transportation network, and residents’ travel demands can’t get public transportation with timely responses.

A sociological view toward the economic and technological development zones in China

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce a sociological view to analyze the Economic and Technological Development Zones (ETDZs) in China. The ETDZs are established to foster concentrated regional economic development. Currently, there are 219 national level ETDZs throughout the country, and they account for more than 10% of China’s total GDP. Given the scale of the Chinese economy, the economic significance of the ETDZs indicates an important phenomenon for better understanding.Design/methodology/approachThis paper conceptualizes the Chinese ETDZs with sociology concepts of place, institutional logics and habitus.FindingsThe sociological view centers on how the ETDZs can naturally evolve with the participation of firms. The authors show that firms operating in the ETDZs can unintentionally alter the dynamics of the policy environment. A process model of place, logics and practice is developed to encapsulate these ideas.Originality/valueConventional research on the connections between Chinese Government policies and business operations has been largely conducted under a political economy view which outlines a top-down logic (policymaking, followed by firms’ strategic response). The authors move away from this dogma by introducing a sociological view of the ETDZs. This new view highlights that a government-initiated policy environment in China can also evolve when firms are seeking to blend into the regulatory system, instead of trying to shape the coercive arrangements to suit their best interests.