AN OVERALL EVALUATION OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF 12 PROVINCES IN WESTERN CHINA——A Comparative Study on the Implementation of the Western Development Program in China
WANG Xin-hong1, DENG Min2, FENG Xin3, ZHONG Wei-zhou1
1. School of Economics and Finance, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710061, China;
2. School of Economics and Management, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China;
3. Department of Shidongxia Street in Foshan, Guoxin Securities, Foshan 528000, China
Abstract From September 1999, the "western development strategy" has been promoting economic development in western China which has abundant natural resources, important strategic locality and great potential. But according to geographical differences in natural resources, the 12 provinces and cities also have some differences, resulting an imbalance of regional economic development trend. By selecting 9 main economic indicators, the paper makes the principal component analysis firstly with the data of western provinces or cities of China in 2008, and gets the comprehensive evaluation system. Secondly, it calculates and lines up the development of western China in 1999. Therefore, the performances of western provinces or cities before and after the implementation of the Program of Western Development are studied by contrasting taxis of the provinces and regions in 2008 and 1999. Without doubt, the implementation of the western development strategy provides a policy support to the economic development of the western provinces and cities, and stimulates the overall economic development of provinces and cities. In the present stage, the impact of regional differences of the provincial economy is still obvious, and at the same time, wide range of geographical difference offers opportunities and challenges to regional economic development. How to break through the bottleneck strong regional or control geographical conditions well is not only the problem of the economic development of China's western provinces and cities need to consider, but also the issue to be addressed in the economic development of China.
2010, Vol. 25 
