Fulong Wu on China’s competitive cities and state entrepreneurialism: land development, city branding and high-tech parks, presented at the 15th TCI Global Conference, Basque Country 2012.

2. China’s competitive cities and stateChina’s competitive cities and state
entrepreneurialism: land development,
city branding and high-tech parks
Fulong Wu
Bartlett School of Planning, University College London
fulong.wu@ucl.ac.uk
Keynote presented in the 15th TCI Annual Global Conference, 16th -19th Oct.
2012, Bilbao.

3. capital labour
land city
Social exclusion
and invisible
consumers
Entrepreneurial
local
governance
Scattered and over-consumption
The ‘world factory’ model of development

4. Emerging cities in the Yangtze River Delta
The growth of the city of Kunshan600
700
800
900
1000
亿元
改革开放
昆山开办工业区
开发浦东
长江三角洲快速发展
中国入世
世界工厂
Opening of Shanghai’s Pudong
new area
World
factory
regime
100million
Self-funded
industrial
zone
0
100
200
300
400
500
1978
1980
1985
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
亿元
100million

5. The ‘business model’ of China’s state
entrepreneurialism: land development dynamics
• Attract investment in industrial development
• Property development and place branding
• Land sales to generate the revenue
• Recycle the profit to fund mega-urban projects to• Recycle the profit to fund mega-urban projects to
generate more development opportunities

6. Rapid urban expansion
Fierce inter-city competitionFierce inter-city competition

7. Modern logistics center
延伸保税叠加
功能吸引展览
展示、国际采建滔集团总部
中城集团总部
“place-based competitiveness”: zones, clusters and
new towns
展示、国际采
购等高端部分
业务
建滔集团总部
苏豪国际广场 Kunshan: Shanghai’s Edge City

8. Chinese suburban new towns as the
outcome of state entrepreneurialism
Beijing Economic and Technological
Development Zone

9. Creating ‘urban clusters’ in the city-region through strategic spatial
planning

10. But, the problem of the ‘world factory’ model is
the lack of competitiveness or local innovation
capacities
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Percentage(%)
Others
Foreign wholly owned
Sino-foreign joint venture
Sino-foreign cooperatives
State-owned
Chinese high-tech exports by firm ownership
0
10
20
30
40
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Year
Percentage(%)
State-owned
Source: MOST

11. China’s changing national innovation system
(NIS)
Mission oriented stage (1949-1978)Mission oriented stage (1949-1978)
Economy transition stage (1978-2001): reform,
devolution and marketization
Globalisation stage (2001-2006): the world factory
model and land-driven industrial development
“Indigenous innovation capacities’ stage (2006-):
fostering place-based competitiveness

12. Innovation and high-tech parks
Two explanations:
-Agglomeration (firms
and market)
-Diversity (regional
innovation system)
State entrepreneurialism
-the role of municipal
government)government)
-hybrid approach to
“fostering indigenous
innovation”
Shanghai’s Zhangjiang High-tech Park

13. Growth of the bio-tech sector in ZJHP

14. Market Social
The policy of “Focusing on Zhangjiang” in Shanghai
Financial
Capital
Strong state support, revenue from land development
Under developed financial system, lack exit opportunities
High-tech park as an
innovation
system
Market
Capital
Social
Capital
Capital
Breaking out fragments
Strong ‘guanxi’
Large potential market
Inactive networks
Social exclusion
Intellectual
Capital
Physical
Capital
Human
Capital
New facilities,
infrastructure developmentLow cost skilled labours
Overseas returnees
Strong science base
Still in an initial stage
Lack managerial talent
Weak technology transfer
IPR issues

15. Branding and the development of “one zone -- six parks” (a group of high-tech
parks based on Zhangjiang brand)
‘Shanghai Zhangjiang High- and New-
Technology Development
Zone’ (SZHNTDZ) in 2006

16. Conclusion
• Creating place-based competitiveness: the ‘neoliberal’
entrepreneurial model, public private partnership model,entrepreneurial model, public private partnership model,
and the development state model.
• Chinese hybrid model of using the market (investment)
and the strong role of local state (municipality) - “state
entrepreneurialism”

17. Conclusion (continue)
• We need an institutional perspective to understand the
development of place-based competitiveness: all
explanations based on agglomeration and differentiation
might be plausible – but for these effects to work, there is
an institutional dynamics that is specific to the local context.
• In China, this context is the development of world-factory,
its underlying business model of state entrepreneurialism
and the policies of the state such as ‘Fostering Indigenous
Innovation Capacities’