Since the reform and opening up, Zhejiang's economic development has been at the forefront of all provinces. According to statistics, during the period of 1978-200 1, the average annual growth rate of Zhejiang's GDP reached 13.3%, from1240 million yuan to 670 billion yuan. The ranking of the national economic aggregate rose rapidly from the original 12 to the fourth, and the per capita GDP rose from the national 65438+. It is particularly gratifying that after 1997, China's economic growth rate declined year by year, and Zhejiang's economy also declined, but it still maintained a double-digit high-speed growth (10. 1% in 1998, 10.0% in/kloc-) In 200 1 year, the GDP of Zhejiang province has reached about 670 billion yuan, and the per capita GDP in 2002 is expected to reach 2000 US dollars, nearly twice the national average. Nowadays, the vigorous vitality of Zhejiang's economy has aroused widespread concern in all aspects. Some people call it "Zhejiang phenomenon". From the perspective of economics, the economic development of a country or region is ahead of other regions, which is inevitably the result of its better comparative advantage. This paper attempts to explore the causes of "Zhejiang phenomenon" from the perspective of comparative advantage analysis.
After a lot of empirical analysis, the author thinks that Zhejiang has obvious comparative advantages in labor force, environment, market expansion, characteristic industries and enterprise management mechanism compared with neighboring developed provinces and the whole country. The specific analysis is as follows:
First, the comparative advantage of Zhejiang's labor resources.
Labor resources, also known as human resources, are the basic elements of the national economy and the basic premise of social and economic operation. In modern society, the improvement of labor quality is a decisive factor to promote economic growth, so it has also become an important indicator to measure the comparative advantages of various regions. It is true that Zhejiang is rich in labor resources, but it does not have a comparative advantage in the context of abundant labor resources in the country. Zhejiang's comparative advantages in human resources are mainly reflected in two aspects, namely, the low natural population growth rate and the high comprehensive quality of the population. From 65438 to 0989, the natural population growth rate of Zhejiang was 8.79‰, only slightly higher than that of Shanghai and Beijing, and the lowest among all provinces. 1999 was 4.29‰, which was higher than that of Shanghai (negative growth), Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning and Jiangsu, ranking sixth in the country and third in the provinces. The natural population growth rate is low, which reduces the population burden and employment pressure and is conducive to economic development. Although Zhejiang's per capita education level is lower than the national average, Zhejiang has an early history of development, profound cultural accumulation, and the comprehensive quality of the labor force is at a high level in the country. Compared with mainlanders, Zhejiang people have more excellent qualities, such as learning-worship, daring, intelligence, diligence, mutual assistance and pragmatism. Its advantages are highlighted in Zhejiang people's strong adaptability to the real environment and their courage to innovate. Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai have always been the areas with the densest scientific and technological talents in China. More than 40% of scientists in China are not included in this list. According to the statistics of Biographical Dictionary of Scientists in China, the number of famous scientists per million people is 4.22 times of the national average, 4. 15 times of Zhejiang and 3.49 times of Jiangsu. Ningbo, in particular, is not only famous for its business tycoons, but also the "hometown of academicians" in China. At present, Ningbo academicians account for116 in China, ranking first among cities in China. Only one effective middle school has produced 13 academicians, which is unheard of in China. In the tide of market economy, Zhejiang people who are willing to use their brains, endure hardships and take risks learn by doing, and their quality improvement depends more on "learning outside the classroom". In the practice of reform, a large number of well-known entrepreneurs have emerged, such as Teng Zengshou, Feng Gensheng, Yan Along, Lu Zong, Nan Cunhui and Chen Jinyi, who are brave in innovation, capable and good at grasping opportunities. The existence of these entrepreneurs is one of the most important factors for Zhejiang's economic take-off.
Second, the comparative advantage of Zhejiang environment
Environmental resources directly affect people's choice of residential areas and enterprises' choice of location, which is the basic condition for a regional economic development. It is generally believed that location, resources, economy and ecological environment are the hard environment for economic development, while social, political, policy and legal environment are the soft environment for economic development. The following is just a brief analysis of the hard environment in Zhejiang. (A) Location environment, Zhejiang's location advantage is very obvious. First of all, the central location of Binhai is conducive to external exchanges and internal expansion. And close to Shanghai, the largest economic center city in China, the "five streams" of goods, capital, technology, information, talents and industrial diffusion are naturally the advantages of "getting the moon first". In addition, Jiangsu and Fujian, which are adjacent to the north and south, are the leading provinces of national economic growth, which can give full play to the agglomeration effect, support each other and develop together. (2) Resources and environment
Bottleneck force of economic constraints
Lack of resources hinders Zhejiang's economic development.
"There is no money for projects under construction, no land for projects under investment, and no electricity for projects under production." This sentence is widely circulated in Zhejiang enterprises.
According to the survey, the arable land available for industry in Zhejiang is less than 4 million mu. If it is used at the rate of 500,000 A Mu years, the industrial land in Zhejiang will be exhausted within 8 years. At the same time, Zhejiang is facing a series of bottlenecks such as shortage of water resources, shortage of mineral resources and shortage of labor resources.
Ningbo, near the coast of the East China Sea, is a veritable water town, with Yongjiang River, Fenghua River and Yuyao River running through the urban area. But in fact, the per capita water resources in Ningbo are only 1.3 1.5 cubic meters, which is 62% of the national average and far below the internationally recognized water shortage line of 1.750 cubic meters. According to the forecast of relevant departments, the total annual water shortage in Ningbo and Zhoushan is about 600 million cubic meters. Even if the water transfer project and the 10 reservoir in the surrounding areas are all completed by 2020, the gap will remain at around 600 million cubic meters due to the rapid economic development, which is quite serious.
The water shortage in Ningbo can be said to be a microcosm of the whole Zhejiang Province. Due to the lack of water, Zhejiang has to exploit a lot of groundwater, which directly leads to land subsidence. By the end of 2003, the total subsidence area of Ningbo reached 175 square kilometers, and the whole urban area of Ningbo has become a huge dish-shaped depression. A motion of Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce pointed out that in 20 1 1 year, the water demand gap in Zhejiang Province will reach 5.5 billion cubic meters; It will rise to 6.7 billion cubic meters in 2020.
Not only water, but also electricity. Hu, chief economist of the National R&D Center for Kinetic Energy Economy, said in an interview with the media that Zhejiang has the most serious power shortage. According to statistics, since the first half of 2003, the shortage of electricity supply in Zhejiang Province has become more and more serious. In the summer of 2004, the actual maximum power supply gap in the province was above 7 million kilowatts. From June to August, 2004,65438, the province's power loss reached 5.66 billion kWh, accounting for 59% of the country.
"In less than a month, Zhuji City has 12 dealers with their own generators. Due to the shortage of supply, the inventory in the company's warehouse for several years has also been sold out. " A person in charge of Zhuji Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Company told the reporter that almost every enterprise in Zhejiang last year, even barber shops, had their own generators due to lack of electricity. There are about 1 1655 self-contained generators in Zhuji, one of the top 100 counties (cities) in China and one of the top 10 counties (cities) in Zhejiang, with a generating capacity of 260,500 kilowatts.
Problems such as power shortage have led a large number of Zhejiang enterprises to move to other provinces. At the beginning of 2005, the Enterprise Transfer Corps of the National Bureau of Statistics and the Enterprise Transfer Team of Zhejiang Province investigated the migration of 596 enterprises in Zhejiang.
According to the survey, of the 596 enterprises in Zhejiang Province, 196 have moved out, 74 are planning to move out, 128 are planning to move in, 48 are planning to move in, and 150 have moved into Zhejiang from other provinces. The general trend is to migrate outside the province.
The top three migration factors that Zhejiang enterprises are most concerned about are: land resources, and the recognition rate is 55.6%; Power supply, the recognition rate is 45.4%; Raw materials and energy supply, the recognition rate is 42.9%. The reason why enterprises leave the Yangtze River Delta is simple: the cost of land and labor is high, and the supply of electricity, energy and raw materials is tight.
The "people's economy" has a weak ability to resist risks.
In Zhejiang, the total number of small and medium-sized enterprises accounts for more than 95% of all industrial enterprises, most of which belong to the private economy. Zhejiang economy is a typical "people's economy". Private economy has surpassed the role of "half the country" in Zhejiang.
"Judging from the performance of the previous economic growth cycle and the stage of strengthening macro-control, Zhejiang industry often shows the characteristics of fast going up and down." According to an economic operation report of Zhejiang Economic and Trade Commission, this phenomenon is related to the absolute majority of small and medium-sized enterprises in Zhejiang.
Small and medium-sized enterprises in Zhejiang account for the vast majority, while large enterprises and super-large enterprises are not only small in number but also small in scale compared with other provinces and cities. As a result, in the national macro-control, the overall anti-risk ability of Zhejiang enterprises is not strong, and the economic development speed drops obviously in the case of macro-control.
Small and medium enterprises are the lifeblood of Zhejiang industry. In 2004, the total industrial output value of Zhejiang was 2446 1 billion yuan, of which the total industrial output value of small and medium-sized enterprises was 2 1 60 1 billion yuan, accounting for 88% of the total industrial output value. Small and medium-sized enterprises have played an irreplaceable role in Zhejiang's economic and social development. However, when faced with difficulties such as lack of land, electricity, water and funds, the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises is particularly difficult.
"With limited resources, the government can only give priority to large enterprises," the owner of a building materials enterprise in Wenzhou, Zhejiang told reporters. "Although the total number of small and medium-sized enterprises in Zhejiang Province accounts for the vast majority of all industrial enterprises, they are still a group that is not given priority."
Zhejiang's economic model needs to be transformed urgently.
"Zhejiang private enterprises will take a new road of industrialization in the future, not extensive, but rely on new technologies, improve products and improve technical content to improve their competitiveness. It is necessary to find new ways to promote industrialization and form new competitive advantages. " Shi Jinchuan, a professor at the School of Economics of Zhejiang University, believes that not only enterprises need to transform, but also Zhejiang's economic model needs to be transformed.
In fact, the economic growth of Zhejiang model has reached its limit. Taking 2003 as an example, the impact of SARS on Zhejiang's economy was about 0.3 percentage points, while the GDP loss caused by power shortage and power restriction was 0.6 percentage points. The transformation of Zhejiang's economic model has become a top priority.
At present, Zhejiang's economic development is restricted by the bottlenecks of land, energy and water resources. Affected by this, the cost of Zhejiang enterprises has risen rapidly, some enterprises' export orders have not been completed, some new investments have been blocked, and enterprises have moved out, which has affected Zhejiang's economic and social development. With the changes of economic development stage, macro-situation, institutional conditions, especially resources and environment, and the implementation of Scientific Outlook on Development requirements, resource constraints will be a long-term factor for Zhejiang's economic and social development in the future. Therefore, we should consider how to ensure the supply and rational use of resources and choose the development strategy suitable for Zhejiang's resource supply. By changing the mode of economic growth, we can promote technological progress and achieve advanced economic development.
Never give up. Never give up!