Publication: Building Engines for Growth and Competitiveness in China : Experience with Special Economic Zones and Industrial Clusters
Date
2010
ISSN
Published
2010
Author(s)
Zeng, Douglas Zhihua
Abstract
China's meteoric economic rise over
the past three decades is an unprecedented "growth
miracle" in human history. Since the Open Door policy
and reforms that began in 1978, China's gross domestic
product (GDP) has been growing at an average annual rate of
more than 9 percent, with its global share increasing from 1
percent in 1980 to almost 6.5 percent in 2008 and its per
capita GDP increasing from US$193 to US$3,263. Total exports
have been growing at an average annual rate of 13 percent
(21.5 percent from 1998 to 2007), with China's share of
total exports increasing from 1.7 percent in 1980 to 9.5
percent in 2008. In 2007, China's incremental growth in
real GDP actually exceeded its entire real GDP in 1979. In
2010, China is set to outpace Japan and become the
world's second-largest economy. China has indisputably
become an important growth engine of the global economy and
a leader in international trade and investment. Rapid growth
in the past decades has helped lift more than 400 million
people out of poverty. These results are truly impressive.
While China's rapid rise has become a hot topic for
development debate among policy makers, business people, and
scholars all over the world, the numerous special economic
zones (SEZs) and industrial clusters that have sprung up
since the reforms are undoubtedly two important engines for
driving the country's growth.
Citation
“Zeng, Douglas Zhihua. 2010. Building Engines for Growth and
Competitiveness in China : Experience with Special Economic
Zones and Industrial Clusters. Directions in Development ; countries and regions. © World Bank. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2501 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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