Assessing competitiveness and development strategies in 34 Greater China economies

Abstract

China's economic power has grown quickly and has achieved impressive growth record over the last few decades. But this growth has also given rise to serious tradeoffs especially widening the problem of regional imbalances within the country. In this light, this paper uses the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) competitiveness index to examine the competitiveness of the 34 Greater China economies. The results of our competitiveness analysis as well as the subsequent policy simulations highlight high regional variability with a distinct pattern of high competitiveness in the eastern provinces while the western provinces are yet to catch up. The ladder-step process of development still has inadequacies in terms of competitiveness spread and more attention needs to be paid to this aspect of development.