THE COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS OF GUANGZHOU CITY IN THE NEW ECONOMY
ZHOU Chun-shan1, YAN Bin-qiu2, LIU Yan-yan1, LV La-chang3
1. Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Zhongshan University,Guangzhou 510275, China;
2. Institute of Kunming Planning and Design, Kunming 650041, China;
3. Institute of Guangzhou Development, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Abstract This paper reviews the research progress of new economy and urban competitiveness, which mainly focuses on urban competitiveness effects of innovation and globalization, and comes to the conclusion that so far there is not many system studies on urban competitiveness on the basis of new economy, especially in the aspect of constructing the evaluation index system. The World Economic Forum (WEF) divides the development of a region or city into three stages: factor-driven, efficiency-driven and innovation-driven stage. The paper concludes that Guangzhou is in the efficiency-driven stage, therefore, effective markets and innovation abilities are the major means to improve urban competitiveness. Then through analysis of the development model of Silicon Valley, this paper suggests that the system of Urban Competitiveness in New Economy(UCNE) consists of internationalization degree, innovation competence, the level of information construction, the virtual economy's and the Economic Developing Zone's development, meanwhile, it is also influenced by economy globalization, information technology revolution and innovation abilities. Through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the paper constructs the evaluation index system for UCNE and analyses the urban competitiveness in new economy of Guangzhou. It gives the results that the strengths in Guangzhou urban competitiveness in the new-economy age are the globalizing level and the innovating competence, esp., the serving level of the city, the innovation in knowledge, technology and the social conception and organizational form, and the weaknesses are the virtual economy's and the Economic Developing Zone's development. The analysis of inner spatial structure of city in new-economy through development activeness, globalizing level and innovating competence reveals that Tianhe District, the new CBD of Guangzhou, and Panyu District, the core area of Guangzhou urban development, are the strongest competitiveness areas of Guangzhou city. The form of the UCNE is outer-ring model and the major development areas are not in the core of the city but in the fringe of the city. Finally, on the basis of the system analysis model of city competitiveness in new-economy, this paper puts forward some suggestions to promote Guangzhou urban competitiveness in the new-economy age, Such as improving globalizing level, perfecting the construction of information infrastructure, changing urban soft environment, boosting the innovation abilities of corporations, and so on.
2008, Vol. 23 
