Study On Economic Development Of Border Counties In Tibet

Since the 18 th CPC National Congress in 2012,Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping has proposed the national strategy of “governing the country must govern the borders,and governing the borders first,stabilizing Tibet”,and has put out the great call for “the guardian of the sacred land and the builder of a happy homeland” was issued,and the “ten musts” strategy for governing Tibet in the new era was proposed.It required Tibet to focus on four major issues:stability,development,ecology,and strengthening the border,demonstrating the important position of the border areas of Tibet in national governance.According to the perspective of frontier science,internal and external connectivity is one of the important functions of the border areas.However,due to the influence and constraints of historical,geographical,international environment,technology,and other factors,this function of the Tibet border areas has not been effectively played for a long time.Withthe gradual deepening of the national action of“strengthening the border,revitalizing the border and enriching the people”,and the comprehensive implementation of the national strategy of " the Belt and Road" and the construction of the Great Passage to South Asia,the border counties in Tibet are gradually evolving from the most closed and backward areas to the forefront of the development and opening up of Tibet and even the country to South Asia.Faced with unprecedenteddevelopment opportunities,they will work with the whole region to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way,Become a window to showcase the achievements of socialist construction with "Chinese characteristics and Tibetan characteristics".The Fourteenth Five Year Plan for Tibet points out that "Tibet’s border construction has entered a critical period of enriching the people and strengthening the border".However,at present theoretical research related to the economic development of border counties in Tibet is relatively lagging behind,leaving a certain space for this study.In this context,based on a summary of domestic and foreign research,this article uses the new development concept,ethnic economics theory,frontier science theory,as well as the growth pole theory,unbalanced development theory,main functional area theory,regional comparative advantage and competitive advantage theory of regional economics as the theoretical basis,using field research methods,combining system analysis and personality analysis,empirical analysis and normative analysis,the method of combining qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis has conducted an in-depth and systematic study of the economic development of border counties in Tibet.The main results obtained from the study are as follows:Firstly,based on a review of the development process of the Tibetan border county economy,the development of the Tibetan border county economy since the reform and opening up has been divided into four stages:the initial development stage of the Tibetan border county economy from 1978 to 1988,the exploration and development stage of the Tibetan border county economy from 1989 to 2001,and the leapfrog development stage of the Tibetan border county economy from 2002 to2012,From 2012 to now,it has been a stage of sustainable and high-quality development of the economy of the border counties in Tibet.The study found that in recent years,the economic development of border counties in Tibet has made significant progress,mainly manifested in the following aspects: the comprehensive strength of border counties has been continuously enhanced,the living standards of the people have been continuously improved,border construction has been accelerated,the ecological environment has becomeincreasingly beautiful,port facilities have been continuously improved,andan industrial system with plateau border characteristics has been established.Secondly,in order to explore the main factors that affect the economic development of border counties in Tibet,this paper constructs a dynamic mechanism system for the economic development of border counties in Tibet,and analyzes the components of three subsystems:endogenous power,external support,and development environment.Among them,natural resource endowments,industrial structure,population and labor force,and regional capital and technology are important components of the endogenous power subsystem.National aid to Tibet,gradient effect of central city expansion,domestic and foreign capital transfer,and enterprise industry chain development preferences are important components of the external support subsystem.International and surrounding environment,social credit level,government behavior ethnic cultural characteristics are an important component of the development environment subsystem.The study found that the special location is the most unique part of the endogenous driving force subsystem for the development of border counties in Tibet.This particularity makes the port areas within the region have good geographical advantages,while the border counties without ports have serious geographical disadvantages.National aid to Tibet is a unique supporting factor in the external support subsystem,bringing a large amount of funds,technology,and talent resources to border counties.At the same time,the particularity of location has also made the border counties of Tibet the forefront of China’s struggle with foreign hostile and separatist forces,making the economic development of the border counties of Tibet more sensitive to the international and surrounding situations.This article also analyzes the mechanism of interrelation and interaction among various constituent elements,and explores the development models of county economy formed under the influence of different dynamic mechanisms:the advantageous location development model,the advantageous resource development model,the technological innovation development model,and the government led development model.Finally,the article selects 16 indicator data from the aspects of economic development,social development,fair development,coordinated development,border trade development,and infrastructure construction of various border counties in Tibet in 2020,constructs a factor analysis indicator system,extracts six common factors such as social development,border trade development,economic development,environmental development,agricultural and animal husbandry development,and inter county balance,and carries out statistical ranking and comprehensive evaluation on the factor scores of each border county.Then,the K-means clustering analysis method is used to cluster the border counties,and the border counties in Tibet are divided into four categories.The results of factor analysis and cluster analysis are verified and explained based on the actual situation of each border county.The study found that there are not only practical problems in the economic development of border counties in Tibet,such as weak infrastructure,low industrial development,low urbanization level,insufficient policy dividend mining,and small economic scale,but also constraints such as natural factors,demographic factors,ideological concepts,and institutional mechanisms.At the same time,there are important relationships that need to be coordinated and addressed between economic development and environmental protection,social stability,national defense security,and other aspects.Based on the above research results,this article conducts a macro analysis of the economic development of border counties in Tibet from both macro and regional perspectives,and summarizes three models suitable for the economic development of border counties in Tibet,including the "ecological+" model,the "border trade+" model,and the "tourism+" model.Finally,the article puts forward the following suggestions for the economic development of border counties in Tibet:improving infrastructure creation and creating conditions for open development;Strive to strengthen the border and create a good development environment;Strengthen population support and build a solid foundation for county development;Focus on regional advantages and vigorously develop border trade economy;Highlight comparative advantages and tap the potential of characteristic economy;Mining tourism resources and strengthening the cultural tourism industry;Hold the ecological bottom line and achieve high-quality development.