Research On Performance Of Infrastructure Investment Of The Pilot Small Towns In Xi’an

Since our country put forward the policy to speed up the progress of developingurbanization, it promoted the development of small towns in Xi’an with an excellentprospect. During the period of the policy infrastructure construction has beencontinuously strengthened and the infrastructure level has been gradually improved aswell, which indicates that infrastructure investment is directly related to the furtherdevelopment of small towns in Xi’an. After less than seven years of development, theinfrastructure construction of pilot small towns in Xi’an has become relativelycomplete and mature. It can be reflected by the fact that the partial towns have becomethe strong towns in the western region. To evaluate the level of infrastructureinvestment in pilot small towns in Xi’an can be beneficial to other small towns becauseit help set out a goal for future infrastructure investment and provide reference for theinfrastructure construction of small towns in Xi’an. The main contents are as follows:First of all, according to the analysis of the current status of infrastructureconstruction in pilot small towns in Xi’an, we found that the infrastructure investmentwas not efficient, which gives us the objective for this research that is to investigate theinefficiencies and recommend feasible solutions. Aimed at the poor performance ofinfrastructure investment in pilot small towns in Xi’an, we chose several influencefactors for the output indexes. By applying the correlation analysis method based ongrey system theory we eventually determined two influence factors including the GDPgrowth rate and the rate of urbanization, which have the highest correlation with thesix input indexes among the other factors, and then we established an index evaluationsystem for the performance of infrastructure investment in pilot small towns in Xi’an.Secondly, according to the established index evaluation system of the infrastructure investment performance in pilot small towns in Xi’an, we obtained therelevant data through in-depth research. From the lateral aspect, we applied C2R modelbased on DEA method to evaluate the relative effectiveness of the annual infrastructureinvestment for eight pilot small towns in Xi’an from2007to2011, respectively.Furthermore, we distinguished and calculated the relative effectiveness in both scaleand technology for the infrastructure investment. On the basis of the analysis of theevaluation results, we came up with the proposal which could possibly enhance theinfrastructure investment performance of the pilot small towns in Xi’an.Finally, from the longitudinal aspect, by observing how the infrastructureinvestment in pilot small towns in Xi’an affect the overall investment performance andalso how its output index has a dynamic effect in time series, we could analyze thechanges of Malmquist productivity index for the infrastructure investment andcalculate the infrastructure investment at all stages. After the series of the observationsabove we could analyze the causes for Malmquist index change and finally put forwardspecific advice to provide guideline for the government’s investment decisions.Through theoretical research and case analysis, it provides a reference to improvethe investment status in the infrastructure construction of pilot small towns in Xi’an. Inaddition, it will also help the government carry out an objective and impartialevaluation about the efficiency of the infrastructure investment, and make full use ofresources to improve the efficiency of investment through allocation.