| The construction industry in China has grown rapidly since 1980s. However, there have appeared a number of embarrassing problems that can be attributed to the disorder of the construction market in China. They have already been drawn to the attention of the construction community and the public as a whole. A number of studies have been indeed made of the market order in general in China, however, few studies has been reported of the construction market order in China, on one hand, and, on the other hand, majority of the researchers has dealt with the specific issues on a case-by-case basis, not the construction market as a whole systematically. In the author's opinion, their research efforts and results can neither dig out the root causes of the disorder that prevails throughout the construction market in China nor propose effective corrective measures as to bring the construction market under a desirable order.It is, therefore, urgent and meaningful for the author to make a thorough investigation into the construction market in China and the root factors that have caused the disorder. The author believes that useful results could not be obtained unless the disorder has been investigated in the context of the transition of China from a planned economy towards a market economy. In the author's opinion, the globalization has become even more obvious than 10 years ago when China was still outside of WTO. Economic globalization shall be taken into account when any review or any analysis is made of the construction market in China. The construction industry and the construction market shall be treated as a integral part of the whole economy and dependency and interaction of the construction industry on and with other economic sectors shall be taken into account, only in this way can a thorough and historic study be made of the construction market order issue. With that in mind, the author has identified and set criteria for assessing the market order. The assessment made by the author based on the data available has revealed that it is the transition as mentioned above and the defective institutional arrangements that have caused the construction market disorder. The assessment has also given us a clue to propose the strategies, institutional arrangements and the actions to put the construction market on a right track and keep the construction market in order and improve its performance.The thesis is based on the field survey by the author of the construction market order in China, the review of reform programs and the development of construction industry in China in the past two decades and the results of many researchers in connection with the general market order in China.The author has described and compared a number of theories in relation to market order and defined the construction market order. Based on the definition the author examined the roles and performance of three major players in the construction market and then their contributions to both the order and disorder of the market.An assessment model of the construction market order is proposed based on the comparison and examination. The steps of the assessment model are as follows: the current situation of construction market is examined first and then a set of indices are identified and quantified. After that, the Fuzzy AHP and Delphi technique are applied based on questionnaire survey made by the author and his fellow researchers.The assessment model for the current construction market order in China can be used not only to recognize the causality between the puzzling parts of construction market order problems, also to improve the construction market management activities in the future. |
