A cheery report on the transfer of the coastal boom to the interior provinces. But the China Daily story is missing at least one important factor: the potential environmental consequences.
The past 30 years of China’s reforms and opening up that began in 1978 stoked the economies in a number of the nation’s coastal regions, including Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
But as costs of land and labor rise – and electricity supplies fall short of demand – those economic heavyweights are giving way to once-obscure inland provinces in central China that are springing up as the next destination of investment.
In the first three quarters of 2007, six central provinces, including Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Shanxi attracted $11.5 billion in foreign investment, a 46.2 percent increase over the same period the year previous and 24.3 percent of the national total.
