Foreign-investment-induced Exo-urbanisation in the Pearl River Delta, China

Urbanisation in the People's Republic of China during 1949-78 was mainly driven by internal forces under a self-reliant, centrally planned economic system. Since the Opening and Reform initiated in 1978, external forces, especially foreign investment inflow, have emerged as a new driving force of urbanisation in some parts of China, particularly in the Pearl River Delta (the Delta) of South China. This study investigates the nature and pattern of this new type of urbanisation, which we label as exo(genous)-urbanisation. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Delta is mainly characterised by small and medium-scale, labour-intensive, processing-types of manufacturing and trade-creative investment coming from Hong Kong and Macao. It shows a spatial tendency within the host region's urban hierarchy in favour of small cities and counties and a distinct border orientation. This contrasts with the concentration in large metropolises or economic core regions found in most less developing countries. Such FDI has interacted with internal reforms to effect significant changes in the Delta during 1978-93, such as economic restructuring, rural industrialisation, the emergence of an export-oriented economy and its rapid integration with the world economy. It has also generated massive population in-migration and dramatic landscape transformation there. Put simply, exo-urbanisation in the Delta shows a predominant growth of small urban centres particularly those along the border with Hong Kong and Macao and hence a more equal level of urbanisation in the Delta and a declining primacy of Guangzhou, the regional primate city. However, exo-urbanisation in the Delta also raises doubts on social and environmental fronts as well as on its durability. The FDI inflow and the newly created export-oriented industrialisation and urban growth in the Delta are obviously subject to vicissitudes of the world market. In spite of this, contemporary urbanisation theories should give attention to the role of external forces. Further studies on exo-urbanisation are not only practical for development and planning in areas under intensive inflow of foreign investment, but could also enrich the literature on the globalisation process and its impacts on the developing countries.

[1]  Simeon Hein.  Trade Strategy and the Dependency Hypothesis: A Comparison of Policy, Foreign Investment, and Economic Growth in Latin America and East Asia , 1992, Economic Development and Cultural Change.

[2]  Y. Kueh.  Foreign Investment and Economic Change in China , 1992, The China Quarterly.

[3]  Clélio Campolina Diniz.  Polygonized Development in Brazil: Neither Decentralization nor Continued Polarization* , 1994 .

[4]  Laurence J. C. Ma,et al.  Urbanisation from Below: The Growth of Towns in Jiangsu, China , 1994 .

[5]  Allen C. Kelley,et al.  Population growth industrial revolutions and the urban transition. , 1984 .

[6]  C. Leung.  Personal Contacts, Subcontracting Linkages, and Development in the Hong Kong‐Zhujiang Delta Region , 1993 .

[7]  LOCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FOREIGN EQUITY JOINT VENTURE INVESTMENT IN CHINA, 1979–1985 , 1990 .

[8]  H. Richardson.  Polarization reversal in developing countries , 1980 .

[9]  V. Sit.  Transnational Capital Flows, Foreign Investments, and Urban Growth in Developing Countries , 1993 .

[10]  Yichun Xie,et al.  Urban Design Practice in Socialist China , 1991 .

[11]  Le-Yin Zhang,et al.  Location-specific advantages and manufacturing direct foreign investment in South China , 1994 .

[12]  L. Chiu,et al.  An assessment of Taiwan's indirect investment toward Mainland China , 1993 .

[13]  V. Sit.  Transnational Capital Flows and Urbanization in . Pearl River Delta, China , 1991 .

[14]  Peter Evans,et al.  Dependence, Inequality, and the Growth of the Tertiary: A Comparative Analysis of Less Developed Countries , 1980 .

[15]  D. Keen.  Polarization reversal in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil , 1984 .

[16]  C. Fan,et al.  Of Belts and Ladders: State Policy and Uneven Regional Development in Post-Mao China , 1995 .

[17]  S. Cunningham.  MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES IN BRAZIL: LOCATIONAL PATTERNS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT , 1981 .

[18]  A. Smart,et al.  Personal Relations and Divergent Economies: a Case Study of Hong Kong Investment in South China , 1991 .

[19]  Folker Fröbel,et al.  "The new international division of labour" , 1978 .

[20]  L. Suarez-Villa,et al.  Organizations, Space and Capital in the Development of Korea's Electronics Industry , 1991 .

[21]  Jeffrey D. Kentor,et al.  Structural Determinants of Peripheral Urbanization: The Effects of International Dependence , 1981 .

[22]  Andre Gunder Frank,et al.  The Development of Underdevelopment , 1966 .

[23]  Y. Hsing.  TAIWANESE GUERILLA INVESTORS IN SOUTHERN CHINA , 1995 .

[24]  Manuel Castells,et al.  EUROPEAN CITIES, THE INFORMATIONAL SOCIETY, AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY , 1993 .

[25]  M. Timberlake,et al.  Economic Dependence, Overurbanization, and Economic Growth: A Study of Less Developed Countries* , 1983 .

[26]  G. Lin,et al.  Changing theoretical perspectives on urbanisation in Asian developing countries. , 1994, Third world planning review.