Sustainability and Development in Asia and the Pacific

Emerging Policy Issues

Xiumei Guo, Dora Marinova

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9789813236011
• Topic: Économie
• Subtopic: Développement durable

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The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a common global agenda for development. However, the emerging policy issues vary greatly across the world.

With 32 contributors, this volume provides a timely, research-based overview for the need for policy interventions to improve the sustainability and development models of the ten selected countries in Asia and the Pacific. The volume is firmly positioned at the cusp between research, policy and practice.

--> Sample Chapter(s)
Introduction: Sustainability and Development in Asia and the Pacific: A Kaleidoscope of Issues --> Contents:

• • Sustainability and Development in Asia and the Pacific: A Kaleidoscope of Issues (Dora Marinova and Xiumei Guo)
• China:
  • Development of Resource-Based and Non-Resource-Based Cities in China (Zhidong Li, Dora Marinova, Xiumei Guo and Xia Wu)
  • Trends and Challenges in China's Photovoltaic Industry (Li Zha, Xiumei Guo and Wei Qi)
  • Knowledge-Intensive Business Services, R&D Diffusion and Sustainable Innovation in China (Huiping Dong, Xiumei Guo and Xing Shi)
  • Productivity and Sustainable Development in China and Indonesia (Wayan Widya Arsana and Yanrui Wu)
  • Urban Agriculture — A Case Study of Ningbo Eastern New Town of China (Liang Wen, Xiumei Guo, Jeff Kenworthy and Dora Marinova)
  • Social Networks, Community Resilience, and Bonding Relationships (Li Xu, Xiumei Guo, Margaret Gollagher and Dora Marinova)
• Indian Subcontinent:
  • Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation, and Resilience: The Slums of Mumbai (Jerome Zayas)
  • Earthquake Disaster and Sustainable Tourism (Claire Vanderplank)
  • Climate Change and Sustainability in Sri Lanka Coastal Community (Buddika M B Bulathsinhalage, Dora Marinova and Laura Stocker)
  • Covering a Dying Delta: Challenges for Pakistani Journalists (Ali Akbar Hingorjo and Dora Marinova)
  • Anti-Corruption Movement in Bangladesh (Tanha Mahjabeen and Dora Marinova)
  • Supply Chain Sustainability in Bangladesh Apparel Industry (Md Maruf Hossan Chowdhury, Mohammed A Quaddus and Umme Nusrat Jusy)
• Australia and the Pacific:
  • Socially Responsible Investment in Australia (Asif Iqbal Siddiqui, Dora Marinova, Amzad Hossain and Vladislav Todorov)
  • Workplace Diversity and Sustainability in the Western Australian Public Sector (Shamim Samani)
  • Inclusion and Resilience in the Philippines (Bijan Khazai, Laniza Lacsamana and Jerome Zayas)
  • Impacts of Climate Change and Mineral Fertilizers Overuse in Indonesia (Flavio Gazzani)
  • Sustainable Development Goals: The Response of Japan (Kanayo Hara)
  • Walking, Cycling and Sustainable Transport (Annie Matan)
  • Sustainability Humanistic Education within an Asian Context (Talia Raphaely and Dora Marinova)

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--> Readership: The book aims at a wider audience of readers, including researchers, academics, students, policy makers, professionals, government and community members. -->
Sustainable Development;Innovation;Photovoltaic;Urban Agriculture;Productivity;Resilience;Anti-Corruption;Investment;Transport00

Part I

China

Chapter 1

Development of Resource-Based and Non-resource-Based Cities in China

Zhidong Li, Dora Marinova, Xiumei Guo, and Xia Wu

1.Introduction

Since the 1950s, resource industries, including mining, have played a very important role in China’s industrialization and economic growth. Many cities were established around the extraction of abundant local mining resources and subsequently started to play a key role in the national productivity layout (Du, 2013). In this study, we analyze resource-based cities whose development and leading industries are based on the exploitation of natural resource (Li et al., 2013), such as local mines and related processing and manufacturing industries. Following 60 years of industrial development, such cities now face the consequences of imbalanced economies, declining economic growth rate, increasing unemployment, over-exploitation, and inefficient use of natural resources (Sun and Dong, 2010). The government started to pay attention to these cities only after 2001 when Fuxin was identified as the first Chinese city threatened by resource exhaustion (Zhu, 2014).

According to the National Resource-based Sustainable Urban Development Plan (2013–2020), there are 262 resource-based cities in China. This plan incorporates for the first time the goals to establish a diversified industrial system, effectively utilize natural resources and improve people’s well-being, which correspond to the three sustainability goals of enhancing economic development, strengthening environmental protection, and improving social advancement (CCICED, 2013). As resource-based cities will continue to play a role in China’s economic development, in order to guide a transformation on a more sustainable path, it is important to understand their productivity and economic growth performance.

Eight cities in Anhui are analyzed to elicit the differences in economic growth patterns between resource-based and non-resource-based urban economies. After a short literature review, we explain the methodology of the study and present an econometric analysis based on 1990–2012 data. Policy suggestions are outlined with the aim of transitioning towards sustainability strategies.

2.Literature Review

Throughout the years, resource-based urban economies have attracted research attention in developed countries (Bradbury and St-Martin, 1983; Rex and Tepperman, 2008) as well as in the developing world (Dinius and Vergara, 2011). Bradbury and St-Martin (1983) studied the pattern of decline in a Canadian mining region through an in-depth case study of Schefferville. They observed that the economic activities of resourcebased towns were extremely simple and controlled through a vertical integration of large companies. Towns developed around natural resources are often dependent on a single industry and exposed to the fluctuation of commodity prices. Rex and Tepperman (2008) identified four stages in the development of such one-industry towns: construction, recruitment, transition, and maturity. Bradbury and St-Martin (1983) also observed that in a market economy the large multinational companies controlling the mining towns had management strategies serving individual business interests rather than the broader community. This leads to the eventual winding-down of settlements and adds the stages of decline and closure to the life cycle of single-industry towns (Bradbury and St-Martin, 1983). The plot of company towns established around the extractive operations of multinational corporations in North and South America shows a simple economic rationale for their existence but also the transformation of the spatial environment by working class communities (Dinius and Vergara, 2011). Hence, the future of resource-based settlements depends on their ability to transition through the cycles of resource extraction.

During mining boom periods, capitalists are willing to invest heavily in the development of resource-based towns and can do so at lower costs and higher profits. Consequently, these settlements are relatively welldeveloped with appropriate infrastructure, housing, educational, health, and recreation facilities. However, once the resource situation changes, investment by large companies, especially multinational corporations, shifts to other destinations. Such changes cause a decline in production in the original towns and often occur before the natural resources are exhausted. Resource-based towns are always exposed to uncertainty given that investment activities may stop or decline at any point of time when more attractive options appear elsewhere. Being highly dependent on resource exploitation and development, these urban economies often lack the ability to react to unfavorable situations and the capacity to create a more comprehensive and diversified economic growth strategy (Bradbury and St-Martin, 1983).

Sachs and Warner (1995) analyzed empirically the relationship between natural resource abundance and economic growth among countries. They found that resource-rich economies have grown less rapidly than those with comparatively scarce natural resources — a phenomenon described as the “resource curse”. Although their analysis was based on national economies, could it be that the same applies for large resourcebased urban economies as in the case of China? In contrast to the free market, China’s resource-based cities were initially established in a planned economic system where their production activities were monitored and managed through central government planning. In spite of the opening-up of China’s economy since the 1970s, there are hardly any multinational companies operating in the resource industries. Most of these industries were developed by state-owned enterprises guided by national macro-policy priorities. Hence, there are key differences in the circumstances surrounding the establishment of resource-based settlements in China compared to places such as Canada or Australia. It is unlikely that the resource curse phenomenon would apply for China as the major driving force for development has been achieving planned rates of economic growth.

By 2010, there were 118 resource-based Chinese cities with a population of 154 million representing 18% of all cities (Zhu, 2014). The review by Zhu (2014) provides a comprehensive overview of studies related to policies, industrial development, and transformation of resource-based cities. He concludes that these settlements face exhaustion of minerals and must transform to survive. According to Dong et al. (2013), environmental protection actions need to be strengthened in these cities. Ren (2011) argues that they need to develop a circular economy promoting sustainable production and consumption.

There are not many comparisons of the economic performance of resource-based and other cities (Lu, 1997; Xia and Shen, 1998; Hong et al., 2011). They show that resource-based cities achieve lower economic benefits and poor productive efficiency. Xia and Shen (1998) point out that most economic activities in such cities are controlled by state-owned enterprises, do not respond to the market factor, and conclude that while being rich in resources, they were economically poor. According to Lu (1997), these cities exhibit deformity in industrial structure, poor economic efficiency, weak local industries, and heavy corporate and social burden combined with backwardness in employment and vocational education. Xiao and Wang (2010) analyzed the development of resource-based cities from a thermodynamics perspective and concluded that the outflow of energy was higher than the inflow, leading eventually to energy depletion.

A study of resource-based cities in Shanxi found that these settlements experienced serious sustainability issues during their social transformation and economic restructuring due to dependence on limited resources and heavy industries (Hong et al., 2011). Kuai et al. (2015) strongly suggest that a green industrial transformation should be launched in China’s resource-based cities to avoid environmental damages.

In order to understand better the characteristics of China’s resourcebased urban economies and enable a smooth industrial transition, we apply the Cobb–Douglas production function and the Solow economic growth model to analyze the cities’ output elasticities of capital and labor as well as the contributions of capital, labor, and technological progress to the development of four resource-based and four non-resource-based cities in Anhui province. Located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, Anhui is a landlocked province in eastern China rich in mineral resources, such as coal, iron, and copper. In addition to mining and steel, Anhui has a diversity of other industries.

3.Study Design and Methods

The Cobb–Douglas production function model is

where Q is the total production of an economy represented by GDP created at city level, A — total factor productivity (or technological progress) at time t, α — output elasticity of labor L, and β — output elasticity of capital K. If

production exhibits increasing returns to scale; if

the returns are constant; and if

they are decreasing (Epstein and Macchiarelli, 2010). After subtracting the contribution of labor and capital to economic growth, the residual represents technological progress or the integrated contribution of technology in production, services, and management (Mimkes, 2010). Hence, contribution of technology to economic growth can be measured.

Data for the two types of cities — resource- and non-resourcebased — was collected for the period 1990–2012, including GDP (Q), employment (L), and fixed capital stock (K). Using econometric methods, we estimate the output elasticities of capital and labor for each type of city and determine whether the difference is significant.

3.1.Sample

The four selected resource-based cities in Anhui are Huainan with strong coal industries, Huaibei also with strong coal industries, Ma’anshan with large steel industries, and Tongling with large non-ferrous metal industries. The four non-resource-based cities are Hefei, Wuhu, Bengbu, and Anqing. There are three main reasons underpinning the selection of these eight cities. Firstly, they share common characteristics. Huainan, Huaibei, Ma’anshan, and Tongling are typical resource-based cities, established because of the presence of mining and processing of mineral resources in their surrounding areas; these industries have consequentially flourished. Hefei, Wuhu, Bengbu, and Anqing are typical non-resource-based cities with relatively prosperous industries and commerce. All eight cities have contributed significantly to the economy of Anhui and are representative of major development trends in the province. Seco...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Acknowledgment
• List of Contributors
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Introduction Sustainability and Development in Asia and the Pacific: A Kaleidoscope of Issues
• Part I China
• Part II Indian Subcontinent
• Part III Australia and the Pacific