「十一五」下泛珠三角與香港研究系列(out of stock)

As one of the few coastal provinces in China, Fujian not only has abundant natural resources, but also has played an important role in China's trade and affairs with the outside world. Fujian was selected along with Guangdong as the first testing ground for economic reforms in 1979, but has experienced far slower economic growth than its southern neighbour due to such factors as the lack of a developed industrial system to support massive production, as it is not part of either the Pearl River Delta (PRD) or the Yangzi River Delta regions, and the possibility of war breaking out in the Taiwan Strait. In a market economy, all resources should be allocated by the market. However, the government sometimes has to intervene in economic activities so that the economy can develop along desired directions. To address the problems that have been hindering Fujian's development, the local authorities have set up development goals through the Five-year Plans that the central government has launched since the early 1950s. Although Fujian's performance in the Tenth Five-year Plan is far from the worst among the nine Pan-PRD provinces, it still has a long way to go to achieve its development goals. In the Eleventh Five-year Plan, Fujian will face bottlenecks to its development and will have to address the challenge of pursuing development in the face of constraints of manpower, resources, and the environment. Over the years, Fujian and Hong Kong have developed a close relationship, as more than 15% of Hong Kong's residents originate from that province. Economic activities have been carried out between the two regions for centuries, and Hong Kong has long been Fujian's leading trade partner and source of foreign direct investment. In 2004, the authorities of both places established an Eight-Platform plan to provide guidelines for enhancing future cooperation. In recent years, Hong Kong has been playing a less central role in the mainland's economic development than it had in the past. But as far as Fujian-Hong Kong relations are concerned, Hong Kong still retains its irreplaceable advantage because of its strategic geographic position as a go-between Taiwan and the mainland. The prospect of development for Hong Kong remains propitious.