Development in North East People's Republic of China: An Analysis of Enterprise Performance 1995-2002.

• Main Authors: Weiss, John A., Geng, Xiao
• Language: en
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Asia; China; Enterprises; Productivity; Profitability; Regional development
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10454/3438

No === Regional disparities within China are now an important policy question. Recently the three provinces of the north-east region have been identified as priority areas for regional development, along with the Western part of the country. The north-east is the old industrial heartland of the country and its economy is based around heavy industry, mineral extraction and state owned enterprises. This paper uses a unique database on medium and large-scale enterprises to establish how far enterprise performance in the north-east differs from the national average and the reasons for any such differences. It finds that even allowing for industrial structure and ownership, performance in the north-east is significantly below that in the rest of the country. This is attributed to aspects of the investment climate in the region.