Preface

At present, the environment that Guangxi county economic and social development face with is undergoing profound and long-term change. The first is the change of regional cooperation, including building the maritime silk road in the 21st century and the“upgraded version”of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the construction of new strategic fulcrum for the open and development of Chinese southwest and central south area, in-depth implementating of the strategy of“Dualcore driver”. The second is the change of the industrial development that represented by speeding up the development of strategic emerging industries, fostering industries with local advantages, reforming of manufacturing and new technological revolution. We believe that these two changes will bring profound and long-term impact to the development of county economy in the future, we must give enough and clear understanding. On the background of the global regional opening-up pattern occur profound change and new technology bring long revolution, the opportunities of speeding up the county economy is“fleeting”, so counties must seize the“window of opportunity”of realizing transformation and upgrading and long-term development, realize the goal of“two built”and consolidate the foundation of the dream of enriching people and strengthening Guangxi.

County is the main battlefield of transformation of development mode and adjusting economic structure, comprehensively improve the quality and efficiency of county economy must be based on the interactive development of industrialization and informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. The late stage of the 12th Five Year Plan Periods is the important period that Guangxi builds a well-off society in an all-round way synchronously, basically build new strategic fulcrum. The development of counties face new opportunities and downward pressure on the economy, increasing factors of uncertainty in development of economic and social, such as“three big problems”that means difficult employment, hard to financing，lack of land. On the background of further implement of the strategy of“Dual-core Driver”, the development of county must be according to the requiremet of main function division, further clarifying the direction of building new urbanization, cultivating characteristic industry, expanding the advantage industry, promoting the city integration, taking balance urban and rural development as important breakthrough point, accelerating to realize those goals of economic development, social improvement, infrastructure improvement and revenue doubled, lay a solid foundation for achieving the objectives of“two built”.

Reform has entered into a critical period, in the process of changing development pattern and adjusting economic structure, the measures must be according to the status of counties and the fact of the low level informatization, low urbanization rate and relatively lagged modern agricultural development. The Report on the Competitiveness of Guangxi Counties（2014）is one of the Blue Books composed by Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences. About the original intention of this writing, firstly, we hope to provide most direct advises for policymaking body, support the strategic plan of local governments at all levels and the development of county economy. Secondly, we aim at forming a Blue Book in which theory and practice fuses, and strengthening its scientific soundness, objectivity and characteristic, enhancing its reference value, and further improving its social influence. Thirdly, we intend to look for the entry point and the core point to promote the competitiveness of Guangxi counties, break the bottleneck, and provide the most direct and realistic reference for the development of counties.

The Report on the Competitiveness of Guangxi Counties（2014）continues the basic writing style of former blue book, still highlights research characteristic. This Blue Book is based on the county competitiveness evaluation and analyses. It uses some research methods such as competitiveness research, demonstration research, empirical research and literature research etc. This annual report is divided into seven parts: the first part is General Report, focusing on the basic competitiveness appraisal of Guangxi counties and making the thematic expositions as well as related theoretical explanations. The second part is Construction of Indicators, highlighting the basic ideas of the competitiveness of Guangxi counties index system and specific indicators. The third part is the Competitiveness Appraisal, including the overall competitiveness appraisal of Guangxi counties, as well as research on competitiveness of Guangxi counties under the“Two Areas and One Belt”. The fourth part is Comparative Research about Different Types of Counties, including the study on the minority counties and the border counties. The fifth part is the Specific Topic Research, including the study of associated problems between Guangxi towns layout and industrial layout and policy research of fostering strong economic county in Guangxi. The sixth part is The Commentary about Latest Research on County Problem, including academic literature and dissertation in the field of county research. The seventh part is the Appendix, including relevant excerpts about county economy development from state and provinces Government Work Report in 2014 and raw data of Guangxi counties competitiveness.

Many thanks to the great attention and strong support from the leadership of Guangxi Academy of Social Science and relevant departments to the Blue Book, so that the Blue Book has been completed successfully to publish and distribute. Due to limits of energy, time, research level and statistical data is part loss and deviation, this Blue Book will inevitably have omissions and deficiencies. We sincerely wish for appraisal and valuable suggestions from readers and experts. We will consistently carry our better research on the competitiveness of Guangxi, aiming at building Brand Blue Book to promote the Blue Book to a higher level, not only the characteristic, but also the quality.

Yang Peng

May, 2014