Since the reform and opening up, China's economy has maintained sustained, steady and rapid growth for nearly 30 years, creating a development miracle that attracts worldwide attention. As the two growth poles of China's economy, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta play a huge leading role in the national economic development. They are "big classrooms" for reform, opening up and economic construction in other parts of China. Their economic development model, market economy concept, business philosophy and management experience, as well as the difficulties and problems they face, can play a role of demonstration, reference and early warning for other regions. Therefore, a comparative study on the economic development process of the two deltas in the past 30 years of reform and opening up and a discussion on the characteristics and laws of their economic development can provide reference for the further economic development of the two deltas and even the national economic development. I. Overview of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta (I) Geographical overview Both deltas are located in the southeast coastal zone. The Yangtze River Delta is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the mouth of the Yangtze River, bordering the East China Sea. It refers to the alluvial plain formed by the Yangtze River entering the sea, including Shanghai, south-central Jiangsu and parts of northern Zhejiang, and is the largest delta in Chinese mainland. The Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone (hereinafter referred to as the Yangtze River Delta) consists of 16 cities above the prefecture level in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, including Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Nantong, Yangzhou and Taizhou in Jiangsu Province, and Hangzhou, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Shaoxing, Zhoushan and Taizhou in Zhejiang Province. Land area 100 1 10,000 square kilometers, with a total population of 83.22 million (2006). The Pearl River Delta is located in the southeast of Guangdong Province, bordering the South China Sea. It refers to the plain formed by the Pearl River and the South China Sea. It starts from Guangzhou in the north and radiates in a fan shape to the southeast and southwest. It is the second largest delta in Chinese mainland. The Pearl River Delta Economic Zone includes 65,438+04 cities and counties: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Jiangmen, Dongguan and Zhongshan, as well as Huizhou, Huiyang, Huidong and Boluo counties, Zhaoqing, Gaoyao and Sihui cities. The land area is 4 1.500 square kilometers and the total population is 25.54 million (2006). (II) Economic Overview Since the reform and opening up, a series of reform measures and preferential policies have gradually made the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta the most developed and dynamic areas in China. Since the beginning of the new century, the economies of the two major deltas have maintained the momentum of sustained, rapid and healthy development, and their leading role in the national economic development has been further enhanced. In 2006, the total GDP of the two places reached 610.3 billion yuan, including 396 13 billion yuan in the Yangtze River Delta and 2/kloc-0.4/kloc-0.7 billion yuan in the Pearl River Delta. Because the economic scale of the Pearl River Delta is developing faster than that of the Yangtze River Delta, and the total GDP of the Yangtze River Delta is only 1.9 times that of the Pearl River Delta, and 1.978 is six times that of the Pearl River Delta, the gap between the two deltas has been greatly narrowed. In 2006, the per capita GDP of the Pearl River Delta was still higher than that of the Yangtze River Delta, reaching 48,645 yuan, which was 16.7% higher than that of the Yangtze River Delta (4 1522 yuan). From 1978 to 2006, great changes have taken place in the industrial structure of these two regions: the proportion of the primary industry in GDP has dropped sharply, the proportion of the tertiary industry has increased sharply, and the secondary industry has remained basically unchanged. The primary industry in the Pearl River Delta dropped the most, from 22.4% to 2.4%, down by 20 percentage points. The tertiary industry in the Yangtze River Delta increased the most, from 18.4% to 4 1.4%, up by 23 percentage points. In 2006, the distribution of tertiary industry in the Yangtze River Delta was 3.7: 54.9: 465,438+0.4, and that in the Pearl River Delta was 2.4: 565,438+0.7: 45.9. The development of tertiary industry in the two deltas was obviously higher than the national average. In 2006, the total import and export trade of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta reached1132.6 billion US dollars, of which the Yangtze River Delta rose from123.6 billion US dollars in 2000 to 625.7 billion US dollars, accounting for 35.5% of the total import and export trade of the country. The Pearl River Delta rose from $654.38+059 billion in 2000 to $506.9 billion, accounting for 28.9% of the country. Since 1978, the actual utilization of foreign capital in the two deltas has increased substantially. 1980, the actual utilization of foreign capital in the Pearl River Delta was only $65,438+0.0/kloc-0.00 billion, and/kloc-0.95 billion rose sharply to $65,438 +0.0938+0.05 billion, which was "outstanding" throughout the 1980s and reached $65,438+0.06 in 2006. Although the utilization of foreign capital in the Yangtze River Delta is half a beat slower than that in the Pearl River Delta, it has come from behind, rising from $ 654.38+065.438+02 billion in 2000 to $ 365.438+064 billion in 2006, greatly exceeding the Pearl River Delta in speed and quantity. At present, these two delta regions account for more than half of China's foreign investment. Second, the economic development history of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta Review the economic development history of the two deltas in the past 30 years of reform and opening up, which can be divided into several different stages. (1) The economic development history of the Yangtze River Delta is 1, 1, 979- 1, 992, and the economic growth in the slow growth stage is more than 10 years in the early stage of reform and opening up. Compared with the rapid development and high openness of the Pearl River Delta in the same period, the economic development of the Yangtze River Delta region is inward-looking, with reform as the mainstay and relatively slow economic growth. In the process of economic reform and development in the Yangtze River Delta, there is a strong diversity. Throughout the 1980s, due to the huge memory of Shanghai's system, the central financial burden was heavy and the opening to the outside world was slow. On the contrary, large-scale township enterprises and urban and rural individual and private enterprises have emerged in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which have become the main driving force for economic growth. With the gradual relaxation of the policy environment, these factors outside the system have grown rapidly, setting off a wave of marketization and industrialization in the Yangtze River Delta region. In 1980s, more than three quarters of GDP in the Yangtze River Delta region was realized through the domestic market (including the local market), and the domestic market played a primary and decisive role in the marketization development of the Yangtze River Delta region. While the degree of marketization in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces is deepening, Shanghai is holding back, and the ownership structure is always dominated by state ownership. The relative lag of Shanghai's economic transformation has significantly affected the overall economic development of the Yangtze River Delta region. During the period of 1978- 199 1, Shanghai's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 7.46%, which was significantly lower than the national average (9.08%) in the same period, ranking first among all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. In the same period, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces increased by 10.93% and 12.35% respectively, both higher than the national average growth rate. However, due to Shanghai's relatively large economic aggregate, the rapid growth of Jiangsu and Zhejiang is not enough to offset Shanghai's relative backwardness, so that the GDP of the Yangtze River Delta region has dropped from 15% in 1978 to 13% in 1990. During this period, the development speed of the Yangtze River Delta is not only far lower than that of the Pearl River Delta, but also behind the national average. 2.1992-2001year, the stage of rapid economic development. In the 1990s, marked by the development and opening up of Pudong, Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta entered a new era full of vitality and led the national economic growth. At this stage, the economic development of the Yangtze River Delta is characterized by rapid economic growth, a substantial increase in the degree of opening to the outside world, and a change from inward-oriented to outward-oriented development. The development and opening up of Pudong has set off the climax of Shanghai's infrastructure construction, promoted the rapid development of the factor market and the pace of enterprise reform, system transformation and government function transformation, so that Shanghai's economy quickly got rid of the long-term shackles of the old system and brought about rapid economic growth. While Shanghai regained its development momentum, the mode of economic growth in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has also undergone tremendous changes: the township enterprises in southern Jiangsu have carried out large-scale property rights system reform, and a large number of private enterprises, limited liability companies and joint-stock companies with clear property rights have been established one after another, and Jiangsu's economy has entered a new period of development; With the development of economy, Zhejiang private enterprises keep innovating, which promotes the sustained and accelerated development of Zhejiang economy. Due to the re-emergence of Shanghai and the new development of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the internal differences in the development speed of the Yangtze River Delta region gradually faded in the 1990s, and its average annual GDP growth rate also exceeded that of the Pearl River Delta region. The proportion of GDP in the Yangtze River Delta increased from 13% in 1990 to 16.3% in 2000. Another notable feature of the economic development in the Yangtze River Delta during this period is that the degree of opening to the outside world has been greatly improved. 1990 the central government decided to develop and open Pudong, 1992 Deng Xiaoping's "southern tour speech", and in the same year the State Council decided to further open six port cities along the Yangtze River, which brought about a new situation in the development of export-oriented economy in the Yangtze River Delta. In particular, the Singapore Industrial Park in Suzhou and the Taiwan-funded industrial parks in Kunshan and Wujiang have risen one after another. At the end of 1990s, the development and opening up of Pudong entered a new stage of paying equal attention to both morphological development and functional development, which made the export-oriented economy in the Yangtze River Delta enter a stage of rapid development. In 2000, the total import and export volume of the Yangtze River Delta reached1.281.80 billion US dollars, which was five times higher than 1.992. In that year, foreign direct investment reached11200 million US dollars, 2.8 times higher than 1992. Since 3.200 1, Shanghai's economy has re-established its leading position in the Yangtze River Delta region at the turn of the century after experiencing sustained high-speed growth in the stage of economic integration and structural adjustment in the 1990s. In the early 1990s, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which did not attach importance to cooperation with Shanghai, began to adjust their economic development strategies, and took the initiative to dock with Shanghai to participate in the economic cooperation and coordinated development of the Yangtze River Delta with a positive attitude. In recent years, the trend of division of labor and cooperation among economic structure, market system, infrastructure and urban layout in the Yangtze River Delta has become increasingly obvious, and the economic integration in the Yangtze River Delta has never been seen before. Shanghai began to give up the low-end manufacturing competition with Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and turned to the high-end production and service integration field to provide service support for the world-class manufacturing base in the Yangtze River Delta; Other cities gradually began to fully consider their own position in the Yangtze River Delta region, their own resource endowments and development conditions to locate their urban functions, and to connect with them in undertaking the transfer of Shanghai's manufacturing industry and supporting the development of Shanghai's service industry. The isomorphic competition that has plagued the Yangtze River Delta for a long time has begun to change. The economic integration in the Yangtze River Delta not only promotes the rapid development of the Yangtze River Delta's economic aggregate and the upgrading of industrial structure, but also greatly improves the internationalization of the Yangtze River Delta's economy. However, in the Yangtze River Delta region where the manufacturing industry is highly developed, "high energy consumption, high pollution and resource-based" products and labor-intensive and low value-added products still account for a large proportion of export products. With the introduction of various domestic policies last year, the rising costs of land and environmental protection, and the rising prices of raw materials and labor, the Yangtze River Delta, like the Pearl River Delta, is also facing the pressure of further changing the mode of economic development and realizing structural adjustment and industrial upgrading through scientific and technological innovation. (2) The economic development history of the Pearl River Delta is 1, 1, 979- 1, 984, and the economic initial stage is 1, 979. After that, due to its special natural geographical location and socio-economic conditions, Guangdong became the experimental field of reform and opening up, and was allowed to implement special policies and flexible measures in opening up. This marks the real beginning of China's export-oriented economy and an important turning point in the economic development of the Pearl River Delta. This stage is the stage when the government's economic decision breaks the traditional planned economy and explores the market economic system. The Pearl River Delta has carried out the rural system reform with "fixing production quotas to households" as the main content, established special economic zones, and started the economic reform oriented to urban market regulation, which opened the prelude to its reform and opening up and took the lead. During this period, the economic development of the Pearl River Delta is characterized by economic start, low degree of opening to the outside world and inward-oriented development. After obtaining the reform and opening-up policy, the economy of the Pearl River Delta began to develop gradually, in which the reform of rural economic system effectively mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for production and promoted the development of rural economy. From 1979 to 1984, industry, especially light industry, has developed the fastest in the Pearl River Delta economy, and its main driving force comes from the west bank of the Pearl River, mainly developing domestic import substitution. At present, the total export volume and actual utilization of foreign capital in the Pearl River Delta are not high, and 1985 is only 163 and $740 million respectively. 1984 Deng Xiaoping's first "southern tour" shows that the special economic zone has achieved initial results as a pilot and window of China's reform and opening up. 2. 1984- 1992 and the stage of economic take-off 1984 After Deng Xiaoping's southern tour, Guangzhou, together with other 13 coastal cities, gained greater autonomy in foreign trade and investment, and the pattern of the Pearl River Delta Economic Open Zone was determined. The reform in the Pearl River Delta has shifted from local reform to comprehensive reform, and the focus of reform has begun to shift from agriculture to industry, from rural areas to cities, and from pilot projects to comprehensive promotion. At this stage, under the premise of continuing to improve rural reform, the Pearl River Delta has carried out a series of market-oriented economic system reforms, vigorously developed the commodity economy, set up large-scale township enterprises, freely developed individual, private economy, foreign-funded enterprises and other economic components, and carried out institutional reforms of state-owned enterprises. During this period, the economic development of the Pearl River Delta was characterized by rapid economic take-off, greatly improved opening up, and the development changed from inward-oriented to outward-oriented. From 1984 to 1992, the west bank of the Pearl River seized the opportunity to replace the consumption of household appliances in the domestic market, used the foreign exchange resources obtained by the reform and opening-up policy, vigorously introduced foreign production lines and parts, and established large-scale production bases such as washing machines and refrigerators, so as to keep its light industry developing at a high speed. At the same time, the east bank of the Pearl River made full use of the special policy advantages given by the central government, the unique geographical advantages adjacent to Hong Kong and the cheap land and labor resources to effectively undertake the transfer of manufacturing industry in Hong Kong, and promoted the rapid development of processing industry with an export-oriented economy. During this period, the Pearl River Delta entered the primary stage of industrialization, and the total industrial output value maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 30%. The average annual growth rate of GDP is higher than the average level of Guangdong province and the whole country, the export volume of foreign trade is growing rapidly, and the utilization of foreign capital is greatly improved. At the same time, the industrial structure and ownership structure of the Pearl River Delta have also undergone tremendous changes: the proportion of primary production has decreased, the proportion of secondary production and tertiary production has increased, and the industrial structure has gradually become reasonable; The ownership structure has also developed from the state-owned economy of 1978 to the state-owned, collective and non-public economy. Deng Xiaoping's second "Southern Tour" 1992 affirmed the phased achievements of China's first round of reform and opening up. 3. During the period of 1992-2001year, a new wave of reform and opening up was set off in the stage of rapid economic development1992. The reform and opening up in the Pearl River Delta has continued to develop in depth, with the introduction of foreign capital reaching a climax, infrastructure and various constructions advancing by leaps and bounds, economic development accelerating, and industrialization accelerating. During this period, the rapid development of the Pearl River Delta economy has two powerful driving forces: First, the rapid development of the private economy. Governments at all levels took measures to encourage the development of private economy, so that the private economy developed rapidly in the 1990s. Second, high-tech industries started and developed rapidly. Since the mid-1990s, the Pearl River Delta, especially Dongguan, has seized the opportunity of international IT industry transfer, adopted preferential policies, vigorously attracted IT enterprises in Taiwan Province Province to invest and set up factories, and developed export-oriented IT hardware manufacturing supporting processing, thus forming an IT industry cluster with division of labor and cooperation, up-and-down linkage and complete facilities. However, in the Pearl River Delta, while the economy continues to grow at a high speed, there has been a trend of overheating in real estate and development zones, which has affected the healthy and coordinated development of the economy. At the same time, the Pearl River Delta is increasingly faced with the comprehensive popularization of domestic reform and opening up, the competition in policies, foreign investment, hinterland and market in other regions, and the great pressure of weakening the comparative advantage of economic development. From 65438 to 0997, the Pearl River Delta economy entered an adjustment period of relatively low growth. In addition to the weakening of the previous policy advantages of the Pearl River Delta, from the perspective of industrial structure, the low-level processing industry has grown too fast, while the industries with high productivity and high added value have grown slowly, which has also affected the economic growth of the Pearl River Delta. Since 4.200 1, the return of Hong Kong and Macao, which are in the stage of economic integration and structural adjustment, and China's accession to WT0 have provided good opportunities for economic integration and a new round of industrial adjustment in the Pearl River Delta. Since 200 1, Guangdong province has successively re-planned the infrastructure construction, informatization and urbanization of the Pearl River Delta, and since 2003, the call for integration has reached a climax. The government has built a cooperation platform in the Pearl River Delta with major infrastructure construction such as rapid rail transit system, and promoted industrial integration in the Pearl River Delta with high-tech industries and modern service industries. Cities in the Pearl River Delta basically regard high-tech industries as the focus of future economic development, build various industrial parks, and begin to pay attention to the creation of entrepreneurial environment. According to their respective advantages, they adopted different economic development strategies. At the same time, the Pearl River Delta gradually began to undertake some service functions of Hong Kong, and its dependence on Hong Kong began to weaken. The traditional model of "front store and back factory" has gradually formed a situation of "integration of stores and factories" For a long time, the economic development of the Pearl River Delta is largely driven by factors and based on the comparative advantage of cheap labor. However, with the rapid economic development and the improvement of industrial agglomeration in this region, the costs of production factors such as land, resources, energy and labor are rising. In addition, due to the rising prices of raw materials and labor since 2007, the adjustment of processing trade and export tax rebate policies, and the continuous appreciation of RMB, the factor cost advantage of the Pearl River Delta has gradually lost, and the operating costs of enterprises have risen sharply. No matter from the internal requirements of industrial structure optimization or the external pressure of rising factor costs, the Pearl River Delta still has a long way to go to transform its economic development mode and realize the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure. III. Characteristics and Laws of Economic Development in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta According to the economic development history of the two deltas since the reform and opening up, we can sum up the different characteristics and laws of regional economic development.