Impact Of Regional Culture On Local Economy

Since China's opening-up to the outside in the early 1980s, the port city of Quanzhou has been developing very fast. Today, it is one of the most developed region in Fujian province, and even nationwide. One of the key drivers to Quanzhou's economic development lies in its culture. The cultural spirit and values continues to impact the economic activities. The culture exerts influence on the various kinds of activities of the"economic person"through guiding the person in his belief, his values, ethic standards and traditions and habits. With traditional culture at the core, the regional culture of Quanzhou is very special in that it also integrates oceanic culture and foreign culture. The Quanzhou culture features money-mindedness, adventurousness, open-mindedness, and trustworthiness. It is just because of Quanzhouness'brave pursuit of fortune regardless of difficulties that led to the fast economic growth in Quanzhou. Meanwhile, however, there are some cultural elements that bring negative impact to the economic development. Quanzhouness, for instance, are quite self-centered and no team players. They also do not strictly stick to moral standards and are not entirely conscious of law. Culture will play a more and more important role with the advent of the information age, and subsequently exerts greater influence over the economic development and social progress. Based upon the above analysis, it could be concluded that it would be vital to shape a healthy regional culture to further promote local economic development. Build-up of a value system cherishing scientific believes would be the central task to shape the regional culture. Appropriate carriers, formats or systems should be provided at the same time to facilitate the process. It is very necessary to shape the mainstream regional culture, to inherit the good traditions, and to properly handle the relationship between the traditional culture and the foreign culture. Education should be enhanced to promote cultural senses and to guide build-up of enterprise culture.