A Study on Port Cooperation in the Tianjin and Hebei Areas Using Factor Analysis

When China switched its economic development focus from the Changjiang-Zhujiang Delta to the Bohai Sea, Tianjin and Hebei became two of the fastest developing areas in the country. As the hub of logistics, the port system plays an important role in increasing the region’s economic development. This paper reviews port logistics in Hebei and Tianjin, and explains the necessity of port cooperation in these areas. An index system for port logistics competition is proposed using factor analysis. The results can be used to guide the positioning and development of each port based on its individual strength, thereby improving the port logistics of the entire area

The multi-level governance of formulating regional brand identities: Evidence from three Mega City Regions in China

The emergence and expansion of clusters of large metropolitan areas also known as Mega City Regions (MCRs) is a worldwide phenomenon. In China, governmental attempts are made to develop so-called regional brand identities for them. Regional brand identities, as a subspecies of place brand identities, differ from regional identities in the sense that they are the result of conscious branding efforts on the part of public authorities rather than more historically evolved regional identities as experienced by citizens. In this study, the establishment of regional brand identities for three MCRs in China is examined, as these are constituted through and institutionally embedded in intergovernmental relations. We map the perceptions of national, provincial and municipal governments of regional brand identities based on planning documents and relevant interviews. The emergence and stabilization of the regional profiles for China's largest MCRs Pearl River Delta (PRD), Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and Jing-Jin-Ji (JJJ) are featured in their dynamic territorial boundaries, centralized institutionalization and various symbolic meanings. The national government promotes the regional brands to reinforce the strategic awareness and future direction of the region, and these profiles are diffused at the provincial and municipal level

A Study on the Development of Regional Marine Industry in China

The 21st century is a century belonging to the oceans, and the ocean plays a vital role in economic and social development. China is rich in marine resources, mainly distributed among eleven marine coastal provinces and cities. With the constant development of the ocean, the marine industries grow rapidly. In China, the “marine industry” refers to the production of developing, utilizing and protecting the ocean, which is also divided into a primary marine industry, a secondary marine industry, and a tertiary marine industry (China Marine Statistical Yearbook, 2017). To study the development of regional marine industries will drive the growth of the regional land economy. As there is a strong correlation between the development of the marine industry and the creation of shore-based organization, it is of great significance to analyze the current status of the regional marine industry in China, which has profound effect to theory and practice for exploring the future development of the regional marine industry. Against this background, this study firstly defines and analyzes the meaning of the marine industry and marine industrial competitiveness by combing the previous literature, and analyzing the overview of regional marine industry and the development of the three marine industries in China. Secondly, this study compares the development of regional marine industry from the perspective of competitiveness and establishes the evaluation index system which includes six first-class targets and sixteen second-class targets. Through MATLAB software, the entropy method is applied to evaluate the competitiveness of regional marine industries. Then, disparities found in regional marine industrial development are analyzed for their reasons. Thirdly, this study establishes the panel data model to analyze the factors influencing the development of regional marine industries in China. Regional gross ocean products (GROP) represent the dependent variable whilst the labor factor, capital factor, technological factor, and environmental factor represent the independent variables. This study also compares these factors, deemed as key influencing elements for the regional development of the three marine industries and the international competency. In general, this study gives the conclusions from two perspectives. On the one hand, there are development disparities in the regional marine industry in China which are seen by comparing the regional marine industrial competitiveness. It is shown that Guangdong, Shandong, and Shanghai have stronger competitive advantages. On the other hand, Guangxi, Hebei and Hainan lack competitive advantages. In addition, marine economic capacity, marine human resources, and marine technology occupy major shares in the evaluation of regional marine industrial competitiveness. Additionally, this study finds that labor, technology, capital, and environment have an impact on the development of the regional marine industries. Labor (that is the ocean-related employed), technology, research funds (one of the capital factors), and marine pollution treatments (one of the environmental factors) have a significant positive influence on development of regional marine industry. At the same time, these selected factors each affect the regional development of China’s three marine industries and international competency to a different extent. Combining the actual development of regional marine industries in China with the results of empirical analyses, this study puts forward suggestions to enhance the development of the regional marine industries in China.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background of Research 1 1.2 Purposes of Research 2 1.3 Methodology 3 1.4 Outline of Research 4 Chapter 2 Basic Concepts and Literature Review 6 2.1 Basic Concepts 6 2.1.1 Marine industry 6 2.1.2 Industrial competitiveness 8 2.1.3 Industrial cluster 10 2.2 Literature Review 11 2.2.1 Literature review on the competitiveness of marine industry 11 2.2.2 Literature review on the development of marine industry 17 Chapter 3 The Development of Chinese Marine Industry 26 3.1 The Current Situation of Chinese Marine Industry System 26 3.2 The Development of Chinese Regional Marine Industries 28 3.2.1The division of Chinese marine regions 28 3.2.2 The marine industry distribution in regions 30 3.3 Structure of the Chinese Marine Industry 35 3.3.1 Chinese primary marine industry 35 3.3.2 Chinese secondary marine industry 36 3.3.3 Chinese tertiary marine industry 42 3.3.4 Obstacles of China’s three marine industries 44 Chapter 4 A Comparative Analysis on Regional Marine Industry in China 49 4.1 Factors Influencing the Marine Industrial Competitiveness 49 4.2 The Evaluation Index System 55 4.2.1 The purpose of the establishment of the index system 55 4.2.2 The principles of the establishment of index system 56 4.2.3 The establishment of the evaluation index system 59 4.3 Empirical Analysis 65 4.3.1 The selection of evaluation methods 65 4.3.2 Data source 69 4.3.3 Results 70 4.4 Summary 92 Chapter 5 Empirical Tests for the Development of Regional Marine Industries in China 95 5.1 The Selection of Variables and Data Source 96 5.1.1 The selection of variables 96 5.1.2 Data source 99 5.2 Empirical Tests 101 5.2.1 Regression estimation of regional marine industry (GROP) 101 5.2.2 Regression estimation of primary marine industry 108 5.2.3 Regression estimation of secondary marine industry 110 5.2.4 Regression estimation of tertiary marine industry 112 5.2.5 Regression estimation on international competency 115 5.3 Summary 116 Chapter 6 Conclusions 120 6.1 Research Findings 120 6.2 Implications 121 6.3 Further Study 123 References 124Docto

SPATIAL DISPARITIES IN THE CHINESE ICT SECTOR: A REGIONAL ANALYSIS

The information and communication technology (ICT) sector is currently one of the most dynamic sectors in China’s economy. Based on the number of cell phone users, internet users and workers in telecommunication, we indicate that the ICT sector is not equally distributed across the 31 Chinese provinces. This is also true for the distribution of per capita income growth. Various tools of exploratory spatial data analysis are then used to uncover that this sector displays signs of spatial autocorrelation as the selected variables appear to be more spatially concentrated in a few provinces. However, while cell phones and internet are mostly clustered in the East, workers in telecommunication are relatively more abundant in the Northern part of the country. On the other hand, the provincial growth rate is more randomly distributed. The existence of a positive relation between the number of ICT users in one province and growth in the neighbouring provinces suggests that ICT ought to be considered as one of the potential levers of a policy aiming to reduce regional inequalities.INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES,

The roles of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy in industrial energy and related pollutant emission intensities

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This study investigates the different impacts of coordinated development in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region on industrial energy and pollution intensities based on the difference-in-difference (DID) method and the quantile DID method. The panel data cover industrial energy consumption and three wastes, which are industrial wastewater, sulfur dioxide, and dust emissions, from all 13 cities in the BTH region and 17 cities in Henan Province for the period 2007–2017. The study finds that China’s BTH coordinated development strategy, on average, tends to restrain regional industrial energy intensity, especially in lower quantile level (0.1–0.4) cities. However, it tends to promote industrial energy intensity in higher quantile level (0.7–0.9) cities. The impacts on pollution intensities vary among industrial wastewater, sulfur dioxide, and dust emissions. The results suggest that, in addition to paying attention to dust pollution caused by transportation integration in the BTH region, China should also pay more attention to green relocation of industries from Beijing to Hebei and strengthen coordinated environmental regulation while maintaining corporate interests

A new composite financial maturity index and its application to China’s province-level regions

This paper introduces a new regional “financial maturity index” (FMI) based on previous studies of financial development theory. We explore a unified measure of regional financial development by constructing a new composite financial maturity model. This paper presents a regional FMI measurement process to study 31 Chinese provincial level regions for the year 2012. Our empirical results correctly reflect the integrated financial development level of different areas, which can be summarized as gradually diminishing as we move from eastern to western areas within China. This trend is also consistent with the characteristics of China’s regional economic and social development

The impacts of CAFTA on trade and FDI in China

The China and ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) was established on 4th November 2002. Since then, trade flows, trade structure, trade complementarities，trade competition and FDI between China and ASEAN have grown rapidly. Nevertheless, the basic issue remains - whether these growth are due to CAFTA. Thus, this study examines the effects of CAFTA on China’s trade flow, trade structure, trade complementarities and competition and, the flow of FDI. A gravity model is used to estimate these effects, while the qualitative method is used to analyze the economic integration. Data for the analysis is obtained from UN database, WTO database, World Bank database and China Statistical Yearbook. This study employed five models to examine the effects of CAFTA on trade structure, trade complementarities and competition, the FDI flow and the effects on different regions in China. The overall results indicate that CAFTA produces trade creation effect and greatly improves the trade structure of China. CAFTA has caused an expansion of inter-industry trade of the main products (crude materials and manufactured goods) between China and ASEAN countries. It has strengthened the trade complementarities between China and Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. However, there are tendencies of weakening trade complementarities between China, the Philippines and Vietnam. On the other hand, trade competition for some products between two sides indicated a different trend. Several ASEAN countries have experienced increasing export comparative advantages in agriculture products, food, fuels and mining products. Meanwhile, China has obvious export comparative advantages in manufactured products and machinery and transport equipment. In addition, the domestic analysis revealed a very promising effect. CAFTA has promoted trade growth for 17 provinces and 7 regions, with positive effect on the geographically advantaged provinces and regions in China. Surprisingly, CAFTA caused a reduction of FDI outflow and inflow in China. In conclusion, CAFTA has improved the trade growth and trade structure in China, while promoting the expansion of trade between China and ASEAN. However, FDI reduced due to CAFTA