A Study Of A New Road To The Industrialization Of The Hilly Areas In Sichuan Province

Industrialization refers to the process by which the agricultural society is transformed into the modern industrialized society, a stage that the predominance of agricultural product in GDP is declining while the proportion of the secondary industrial product rises. It not only indicates the optimizing of industrial construction, but also represents the industrialization, specialization, marketization, modernization, and legislation of the whole national economy. Industrialization is regarded as the engine and kernel of the national economic development, and the primary motive force of economic structure transformation. Industrialization first made its start in the Western countries and has led a natural progress without running into cultural or institutional obstacles. However, in the developing countries, industrialization started more than one hundred years later and has advanced under the guidance and propelling of the governments, and to varying degrees encounters with barriers in terms of culture, resources, system, market, technology, and competition. Meanwhile, the developing countries are adventurous in avoiding the detours already made by the developed countries.China is a large developing socialist country. In the process of industrialization, based on the consideration of the historical experiences gained by China and other countries, the objective judgment of the historical position of the industrialization in contemporary China, and the actual understanding of the characteristics of the times and the national condition, CPC and the central government have formulated a scientific planning of new road to the industrialization of China. At 16^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Jiang zemin pointed out that, "It remains an arduous historical task in the process of our modernization drive to accomplish industrialization. IT application is a logical choice if industrialization and modernization of ourcountry are to be accelerated. It is, therefore, necessary to persist in using IT to propel industrialization, which will, in turn, stimulate IT application, blazing a new road to industrialization featuring high scientific and technological content, good economic returns, low resources consumption, little environmental pollution and a full display of advantages in human resources." The new road to industrialization is a right decision made on the basis of the actual situations in China and the only trail to common prosperity achieved by taking measures suited to the local conditions and giving full play to the advantages of each place.Sichuan province is one of the largest hilly province in China, with 68 counties (or districts) located in hilly areas and nearly 60 percent of the whole provincial population living there, characterized of over population, land scarcity, and resource shortage. According to statistics, the land area of the hilly areas occupies only 18.2 percent of the total in Sichuan, but feeds 60.4 percent of the provincial population. The hilly areas used to be an important producing place of grain, oil, cotton, and pig, as well as the food and textile industrial base in Sichuan. However, its economic development has fallen behind the other areas of Sichuan since the mid-1980s for varied reasons. There are such difficulties as low industrialization level, outstanding problems in respect of "Agriculture, Countryside, and Farmer", and the conspicuous contradiction between the ecological environment and natural resources on the one hand and the large population on the other. In view of the vital importance of industrialization and the unique position of the hilly areas in Sichuan, it is necessary, though difficult it is, to blaze a new road to the industrialization of hilly areas. Therefore, it is undoubtedly a pivotal but arduous task to study on such issues as the realization of industrialization, exploration of a new road to industrialization, acceleration of the industrialization of rural areas and modernization of agriculture.Taking Marxist theory as the guide, the thesis tries to study on a new road to the industrialization of hilly areas in Sichuan by making use of the theories and methodologies concerning with regional economics, macro-economics, development economics, sociology. By combining the Normative Analysis and the Positive Analysis, the thesis makes an empirical analysis, synchronically and diachronically comparative study of the general condition and the situation of industrialization of the hilly areas in Sichuan. The thesis adopts macroscopic,mescoscopic, and microscopic analysis by giving priority to the former two, and also employs quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, and static analysis and dynamic analysis.The thesis starts with an explanation of the internal relations between the scientific view of development and the new road to industrialization from the perspectives of historical development and their logical connections. It regards the scientific view of development as the sublimation of such ideologies as the consideration of development as the fundamental principle, the Three-step Development Strategy of China's Modernization Drive, the General Design of Development by Focusing on Two Major Issues, the objective of building a well-off society in an all-round way, and the planning of a new road to industrialization. It is the guiding ideology and fundamental policy. The new road to industrialization is an important practical basis of the scientific view of development and an essential way to carry out it. They are two important issues independent but consistent with each other. On the one hand, the hilly areas should forge ahead on the new road to the industrialization under the guidance of scientific view of development. On the other hand, the scientific view of development at the hilly areas has to be realized through such practice as the advancement on the new road to industrialization.The thesis then analyzes the geographic and economic features of the hilly areas by using economic location theory in the light of the basic conditions of the hilly areas in Sichuan. It defines the hilly area as the economic region which is based on the administrative division and marked off by the differentiation of natural landforms. Despite being located according to the provincial, municipal, and prefectural administrative divisions respectively, it is not a pure administrative unit. It is mainly judged by the geographical conditions instead of the economical elements and the level of development since the special topography determines its special resources, industrial structure, spatial difference of development levels, and the choice of roads to industrialization and urbanization. The recognition of hilly area as a special natural economic region sets a platform for the study of the new road to industrialization in the thesis, and thus broadens the vision of spatial analysis.In view of the characteristics of the topography, resource, and the economicdevelopment, the thesis proposes a trail of industrial evolution in the industrialization and the mode of its spatial layout. The exposition on the trail of industrial evolution proves the idea of "being resource-oriented, enhancing the unified development of the tertiary industry, introducing foreign capital and establishing domestic connections, and bringing about a leapfrog development," and summarizes the industrialization optimization modes, including improving the traditional industries by making use of IT and giving impetus to the special agricultural production by cultivating the spearhead enterprises. It puts forward that a spatial layout mode characterized of "adjusting measures to local conditions, making systematic development, placing emphasis on key areas, and Diving a comprehensive development with varied impetus." The thesis also investigates and evaluates the concentration of industrial enterprises in industry parks, the flow of farmers to the urban areas, and the congregation of land by big enterprises.Considering the over-population, land scarcity, and low level of social and economic development in the hilly area, the thesis suggests a trail to the industrial shift of the hilly areas which is realized by the flow of surplus rural labour in the process of industrialization. The traditional road to industrialization, if carried out in the hilly areas of Sichuan, would have such disadvantages as low speed and long cycle time. So it needs to seek a new developing road special to the hilly area in Sichuan which makes use of the advantages of the hilly areas by enhancing the quality of the labors, giving major efforts to the development of service industry, and encouraging people to run businesses in their hometowns for the sake of the upgrading of economic structure of the hilly areas, and the frog-leaping development of its economy.The thesis analyzes the bearing capacity of the resource and environmental condition of the hilly areas in Sichuan, and convinces the special role and function of hilly areas in the cause of ecological construction and environment protection according to its essential position of connecting the plain and mountainous areas. In spite of its fragile ecological condition, poor carrying capacity of resource and environment, and serious soil erosion, the hilly area provides an eco-screen between the plain and the mountainous areas. Moreover, located in the upper reach of the Changjiang River, the hilly areas function as a protecting screen forthe river, claiming due attention to the utilization of resources, the ecological construction, and the environmental protection there. The thesis further suggests that the economic external theory be adopted to guide the sustainable development of the hilly areas, administrative and economic measures be taken to fulfill the cost compensation so as to promote the development of recycling economy in the hilly areas.