By Jia Shen, Department of Development Strategies and Regional Economy, DRC

Research Report, No. 120, 2020 (Total 5864) 2020-5-22

Abstract: During the 13th Five-Year-Plan period, fueled by a series of new regional strategies, the overall economy in China’s east region has kept a steady growth, the development of the central region has sped up significantly, and the regional growth pole in the west region, mainly Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality, has been formed. At the same time, the development difficulties of the Bohai Rim Region and the Northeast region has stood out. In terms of the economic efficiency, the central region, the Sichuan and Chongqing region and the Southeast region are better than other regions, reflecting the positive progress made through industrial restructuring in relevant regions. The pattern changes in China’s regional economy during the 13th Five-Year-Plan period have strong endogenous driving support. Since the beginning of this year, China has been hit by the COVID-19 epidemic, but the growth potential in China's gradient regional development pattern has not changed fundamentally. During the 14th Five-Year-Plan period, we need to further enlarge the coverage of the new regional development strategies, provide better development conditions, especially more talents, for underdeveloped regions, strengthen the support for regions with transitional difficulties, so as to effectively unleash the gradient regional development potential.

Keywords: regional development pattern, growth potential, 13th Five-Year- Plan, 14th Five-Year Plan