Background Material of The Mountainous Area, and The East and West Wings of Guangdong Province


[Geographical location]

The mountainous area of Guangdong is located in the northern territory of Guangdong, including 6 mountainous cities, namely Shaoguan, Heyuan, Meizhou, Qingyuan, Zhaoqing and Yunfu. The east wing of Guangdong is the eastern part of Guangdong, including 4 cities which are Shantou, Shanwei, Jieyang and Chaozhou. The west wing of Guangdong is the western part of Guangdong, including 3 cities which are Yangjiang, Zhanjiang and Maoming. The total land area and the population of the mountainous area, and the east and west wings of Guangdong are 3.3 and 2.3 times as large as the Pearl River Delta’s repectively.

[Advantages of Development]

-- Infrastructure is becoming perfect. The mountainous area, and the east and west wings of Guangdong will be in the 3-hour economic circle with the Pearl River Delta when the network of expressway covering the whole province is to be completed before 2005. The space-time distance between the east and west wings and the Pearl River Delta becomes closer with the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. With fine deepwater ports, Shantou in the east and Zhanjiang in the west possess the condition of developing into the logistics pivot in the Southeast and Southwest China.

--Rich Resources. The mountainous area has beautiful ecological environment and rich agricultural, forestry, mineral, water, tourist and other resources. The east wing of Guangdong enjoys unique tradition in trade and business and long connection with Overseas Chinese. Ceramics, garments and agriculture with characteristics are developed relatively earlier in the east wing of Guangdong, where the private economy is running actively. The west wing of Guangdong has outstanding advantage by owing subtropical agricultural resources, and heavy chemical industry foundation facing the sea. There are rich marine resources in both wings of Guangdong.

--Investment cost is low. Land price in the mountainous area and the both wings of Guangdong is only 1/3 to 2/3 respectively of that of Pearl River Delta; the price of labor force is only 2/3 of that of Pearl River Delta. In these areas, there is rich electric power and the electric price is generally lower than the average level in the whole province; therefore, the high energy consumption industry invested in the mountainous area can obtain the extra comparative advantage.

--Geographic superiority. Being located in the front position of the Pan Pearl River Delta Area and the China—ASEAN Free Trade Zone, the mountainous area and the both wings of Guangdong has enormous regional cooperation potentiality. The Pan Pearl River Delta Area covers the basin of the Pearl River and 9 provinces neighboring on the Great Pearl River Delta Area, namely, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, and Hongkong and Macau Special administrative regions. All the provinces and regions have closed economic and trade relationship. The area, population and GDP value of the 9 provinces accounts for 20.9%, 34.8% and 33.3% respectively of the whole country. The Pan Pearl River Delta Area will definitely become the hifh-speed growing region in China’s economic development in the next 10-20 years.

-- Support on policy. The Provincial Party Committee and Provincial government of Guangdong have paid much attention to the development of the mountainous area and both wings. In May of 2002, the strategy of “Area Developing in Harmony” was first proposed on the 9th Party Congress of representatives of Guangdong province. In September of the same year, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial government of Guangdong issued the “Decision on Quickening The Development of Mountainous Area”. In 2004, the “Decision on Quickening The Development of County Economy” was issued, which offered more favorable policy support and external environment to the development of the mountainous area and both wings of Guangdong Province.

-- Idea advantage. The demand of developing the economy by themselves in the mountainous area and both wings of Guangdong is very strong. They are creating various kinds of conditions to actively accept industry transfer from the Pearl River Delta. The mountainous area and both wings of Guangdong devote themselves to improvement of the soft investment environment, by simplifying procedures of handling affair, norm and reducing various kinds of charge. They have set up the one-station organization in which relevant functional departments work together, examine and approve the establishment of foreign-invested project, and provide full services to the foreign investment enterprises. The governmental departments have announced the concrete commitment of good services, and accepted the supervision from foreign businessman and the public.