Search

City-regionalism plays an increasingly important role in China's economic development. This paper analyses new forms of institutional arrangements that promote city-regional governance in the case of Hong Kong and Guangdong. Focusing on implementing the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), we examine two research questions: Why are Guangdong and cities in the PRD strategically selected to implement CEPA and embed Hong Kong-based circulatory capital? How do governments at different scales build coordinated relationships to implement CEPA? Building upon the literature on state rescaling, we argue that governments have engaged in a scalar division of administration – a form of institutional infrastructure that aims to design and implement state strategies of urban and regional development. Within this division, the national government plays a role in steering and decision-making, Guangdong provincial government in coordination and facilitation, and urban governments in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Zhuhai in actual implementation. CEPA implementation is built upon vertical linkages between governments at different levels in the Mainland and HKSAR government, and horizontal linkages between three free trade subzones (Qianhai, Nansha, and Hengqin) and Hong Kong-based firms and entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic cooperation between Hong Kong and Mainland China, especially Guangdong province, has flourished since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1997. The landmark is the conclusion of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong and the Mainland in 2003. CEPA covers liberalisation of trade in goods, liberalisation of trade in services, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, and other trade facilitation measures. This paper uses the collaborative governance regime framework to analyse the economic cooperation between Hong Kong and Mainland China under CEPA. This case shows that if there are environmental conditions generating incentives for both parties to cooperate, a committed leadership on both sides to drive the regime, and institutional arrangements that could facilitate the collaborative dynamics, effective collaboration between players from different political and institutional backgrounds can still be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has been the flagship labouratory of Deng Xiaoping’s reform and open-door policy and the forerunner of China’s capitalist transformation. The initiation of the Shenzhen SEZ was driven by the imperative of political and economic survival along the state hierarchy and was informed by the international practices of export processing zones (EPZs). Shenzhen’s capitalist fundamentals, such as the commodification of land and labour, were largely established through imitating its ‘big master’ Hong Kong across the border. However, Shenzhen’s policy learning style has gradually shifted from laissez-faire Hong Kong to authoritarian Singapore, propelled by the aspiration, shared among policy-making party élites across China’s administrative hierarchy, of perpetuating the single-party rule. Theoretically, this paper demonstrates how policy mobility is shaped path-dependently by the pre-structured institutional/ideological regime, in what ways the idiosyncratic geographical/historical conjuncture matters, and why political representation and participation are crucial to policy selection and mutation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Shenzhen is not only one of the fastest-growing urban agglomerations in mainland China, Shenzhen also stands for a unique, most rapid and successful transformation into an urban market economy. How important are personal characteristics, social norms and policy-related discriminatory factors for income determination in such an extraordinary city? This paper estimates the income effect of non-productivity-related discriminatory factors (like personal characteristics, social norms and policies), compared with productivity-related returns on human capital. The design of the Shenzhen Household Survey 2005 enables the inclusion of a large set of discriminating factors in a Mincer Becker type of income model, together with a unique look at the migrant population in this urban centre. The results show that the human capital approach holds. Strong evidence is also found of a significant influence of social norms and policies, which is particularly relevant in a developing and transitional economy, even in such an exceptional city. The most important discriminating factor appears to be the hukou registration system. The on-going existence of these non-productivity-related discriminating factors can be regarded as indicative of an on-going process of transition towards a fully functioning market economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)