A Study On The Industrialization In West China

Industrialization is considered to be the only way for any countries and regions in the world to realize their modernization. Ever since the end of the Industrial Revolution in England in the 19th century, the industrialization has come to be one of the basic themes of the developed countries and regions in the world as well as the important material base for them to make a transition from rural to industrial economy and from agricultural to industrial society and then proceed to embrace the post-industrial and knowledge-based era. Since the end of the World War II, the practice of casting off poverty and underdevelopment by quickly realizing industrialization has become the common objective sought after by most developing countries and regions across the world in their economic and social development, for which they have made arduous and unremitting efforts and studies.As an indispensable part of New China's industrialization, the industrialization in west China, strongly buttressed up by China's central government, has undergone dramatic changes in its development. It has not only brought an end to the history of no modern industry in Old China and the very irrational industrial distribution in the east coastal areas in the early years of New China, but also established a great number of modern industrial systems with broader scales, relatively complete departments and complexes with stress on iron and steel, machinery, chemicals, electronics, aviation and spaceflight, building materials, and energy resources. Therefore it has been one of the leading drivers of economic growth, making great contributions to the economic development either in west China or the rest of the country as a whole.However, the industrialization in the present-day west China finds itself remaining in its initial stage: its industrialization is left far below all China's average; the industry itself is plagued by some problems such as the obviously smaller industrial aggregate, the disproportionate industrial structure, the slower industrial growth, the unbalance of the industrial organization, the poorer capability of innovation, and the relatively inadequate effect of diffusion, etc. While the industrialization is launched further, there are also some other constraints, such as the obviously institutional obstacles, the slow agricultural development, the delayed urban development, poor infrastructures, and less access to product markets, etc. Thus, west China's industrialization is met by the great challenges of these constraints. It is one of the important and arduous tasks of historical significance to overcome these obstacles and blaze a new trail of industrialization that is in keeping with the reality and actual conditions of China's west region.In view of the history of industrialization across the world, all the countries and regions have charted their different paths of industrialization in the light of their different realities, thus forming different patterns of development. As the validity of industrial patterns are path-dependent, any industrialization models that copy, regardless of their own objective conditions, their counterparts of other countries and regions, are bound to fail. Thus, as one of China's special regions, west China is required to be based on its own reality in order to bring about a strategic transition by drawing on the successful industrialization experience of other countries and regions. The fundamental purpose of strategic transition is to eliminate the malpractices brought about by the traditional modes of industrialization and to find out a path of industrialization that combines the endogenous and exogenous growth on the part of the enterprises. The transitions include those from the government promotion to market-based mechanism, from the government to the enterprises as the principal part, from the single and closed-door to the multiple and open-door development, from the capital-intensive strategy to that of innovation in science and technology, from the neglect of rural development to the coordinated development of town and country, and from the development of diffusion to that of agglomeration. Based on these strategic transitions, the thinking on west China's industrialization in the early 21st century is generally elaborated like this: It is to lay a solid foundation for the industrialization by boosting the agricultural modernization; to provide the industrialization with the forms of spatial organization by incubating leading industrial clusters; to offer the adequate spatial carriers to the industrialization by developing urban complexes; to give an impetus to the industrialization by independent innovation; to expedite the sustainable industrialization by developing circular economy; and to diversify the outbound channels of the industrialization by carrying on the industrial shifts from China's east region.In compliance with this, the industrialization in west China is to be launched in the following paths: (1) to strengthen the overall planning of town and country and develop the modern agriculture, i.e. to fundamentally put an end to the urban deviation and rural neglect in the industrialization, to pay great attention to the industrial chains that extend into rural areas, to accelerate the agglomeration and diffusion of sophisticated production factors into rural areas, to promote the development and innovation of modern modes of agricultural production, to bring about a transition from traditional to modern agriculture, and to lay a solid material foundation for the industrialization; (2) to facilitate the industrial agglomeration and develop industrial clusters. The industrialization policy of west China should be oriented to the establishment of industrial clusters, especially those with characteristically competitive edges in order to enhance the development of an agglomeration economy. Since the conditions are not yet ripe in west China, the development of industrial clusters should be put first. It is expected that the government's driving force should be brought into full play, that is, to induce the region-wide industrial agglomeration by means of industrial integration, etc., to effect the agglomeration of production factors in the leading industries, and to gradually produce a number of industrial clusters that are highly characteristic, diffusive, and competitive; (3) to stress the industrial support and develop the urban complexes, i.e. to expand the institutional space, to develop the urbanization factors, to construct urban development networks that are industrially well-connected with the focal point on the establishment of many central-and-peripheral urban complexes, and to provide adequate spatial carriers for the industrial development; (4) to adhere to independent innovation, and attach great importance to the network construction, i.e. to develop regional systems of innovation and improve the climate of independent innovation in order to give full play to the independent innovation at three level of enterprises, industrial clusters and regions, and to give inexhaustible driving forces to the industrial development; (5) to launch circular economy and realize sustainable development, i.e. to accelerate the industry's sustainable development by means of popularizing and updating the concept of development, reinforce the technological support, and practice circular economy and clean production, etc.; and (6) to carry on the industrial shifts from China's east region and open wider to the outside world, i.e. to make full use of the resources and markets both at home and abroad, to make quicker use of external resources, and to introduce more sophisticated production factors into west China. With the above-mentioned development paths, it is expected to work out a path of industrialization that is characteristic of China's west region.To make sure that the industrialization paths are enabled to develop in west China, the supporting system of industrialization must be reinforced. Its specific measures include: to work out classified legal systems in order to use the legal stability to guarantee the industrialization in China's west region; to map out the development plans, i.e. the governments at all levels are required to develop, in the light of their experience, across-the-board and scientific plans for industrialization and reinforce their implementation; to build up the capability of administrative governance, and innovate the way the government is administered in order to initially establish a government characteristic of public service that is required by the regime of socialist market economy; to perfect the supporting system of policies, i.e. to work out, in compliance with the laws of market economy, a full package of industrialization policies that reflect the integration of the openness and multi-levels, the suitability to the objective reality and the mutual coordination of the industrialization policies of the central government; to encourage the private economy, i.e. to remove the institutional obstacles and unfavorable factors of the policies, to urge the development of non-public economy, making it one of the important drivers of the industrial, economic and social development in China's west region; to step up the infrastructures construction, i.e. to facilitate the construction of such infrastructures as railways, roads, airports, natural gas pipelines and information communications, to develop a system of all-inclusive transport, a system of transmission, and a system of communication networks in order to be fit for the requirements of the industrialization.Given the general shortage of economic resources and marketisation factors, the industrialization in west China is expected to get started first in the resource-rich and economically developed areas, to give full play to the regional advantage of characteristic resources and the agglomeration effect of production factors, to intensify the overall planning and coordination, to break free from inter-regional blockade and market separation, to optimize the spatial distribution of economic development, and to establish the priority areas of industrialization that are rational in the division of labour, complete in coordination and complementary in advantages. The breakthrough development of the priority fields in the priority areas is expected to develop some leading poles or points of growth, by which effect of polarization and diffusion a development in coordination with and interrelation to other regions is to be realized, and finally the multiplier effect of growth in economic priority areas is to bring the industrialization of all China's west region into a lane of fast and sustainable development.