Sanding the Rust from China’s Northeast
April 11th, 2008 | by This is China! |Reuters recently reported:
China’s Northeast region, once the crown jewel of a centrally planned economy but now its rust belt, fell on hard times at the turn of the century as its monolithic state companies adapted slowly to a rapidly opening economy.
Now, years of painful reforms and an industrial overhaul have allowed the region to regain some of its former glory.
Unemployment has dipped to manageable levels. State firms like Bank of Dalian pursue stock listings. The region is vying with Shanghai to become a global shipbuilding nexus, led by the country’s largest shipyard, Dalian Shipbuilding.
The region is will become more the focus of foreign direct investment as its economy develops and its costs remain lower than that of the Pearl and Yangtze River Delta’s:
“The Northeast has transformed in the right direction,” argued Zheng Yanchao, an economist in Guangzhou. “But its market growth momentum has not fully picked up yet and it probably can’t regain its leading position, at least not in the near future.”
One Response to “Sanding the Rust from China’s Northeast”
By China Law Blog on Apr 12, 2008 | Reply
Problem is that Dalian is a nice, relatively unpolluted port (and technology) city with an international past and present. In other words, though Dalian is thriving, I do not think it makes for a terribly good representation of the entire region.