Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn 2014, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development Strategy (hereinafter the Jing-Jin-Ji Strategy) was formally proposed as a major national strategy, providing an unprecedented opportunity for the overall development of Hebei. This article evaluates the treatment effects of the Jing-Jin-Ji Strategy on Hebei's economy and environment. Employing a panel data program evaluation method developed by Hsiao et al. (2012), we construct hypothetical counterfactuals for the GDP growth rate, the percentage of tertiary industry in GDP, and the geographic mean PM2.5 concentrations for Hebei in the absence of the Jing-Jin-Ji Strategy using the outcomes of selected untreated provinces. The results show that the Jing-Jin-Ji Strategy increased the percentage of tertiary industry in GDP by an average of 2.53 percentage points per year between 2014 and 2018 and decreased the geographic mean PM2.5 concentrations by an average of 11.1 percentage points per year between 2014 and 2017. However, it does not appear to have had significant effects on Hebei's GDP growth rate. The leave-one-out method demonstrates the robustness of the above results. This article suggests that Hebei should speed up its economic growth and bridge the gap with Beijing and Tianjin while ensuring the quality of its economic development and a sound ecological environment.

A number of countries are concerned, to a certain degree, about the prospects for the implementation of the Chinese strategic initiative for the joint creation of the "Silk Road Economic Belt" (SREB). These concerns relate to fears of the transfer from China to the "belt" countries of excessive capacities of the polluting primaries industries, possible environmental degradation, and the destruction of the traditional way of life as a result of the implementation of mega-projects, and the fragility and vulnerability of many ecosystems along the routes of the prospective throughways between the eastern provinces of China and Europe [Bezrukov, 2016]. Environmental problems are clearly of key importance for the prospects of China's initiative. The initiative's program documents have stressed the need to take into account the interests of all parties and act solely on the basis of mutual benefit. The authors briefly consider the variety of natural and socio-economic conditions in the SREB zone and the sharp differences in the degree of economic development of the territory, which require close attention and scientific justification for political and economic decisions. Particular differences include temperature regime, precipitation, modern atmospheric circulation, transport of particulate matter and contaminants, soils, vegetation, land use, and risks of desertification in the SREB zone. The potential of complementarity of the natural resources of China and a number of neighboring countries may be realized. The paper also discusses China's present policy in the transition to sustainable development and its underlying concepts and achievements, especially at the level of regions and cities, including the concept of "ecological civilization" and the six stages of greening of cities. The authors believe that tourism related activities should be coordinated specifically at the city level as part of "green development." It is necessary to create free economic zones in the "economic corridors" along the planned transcontinental lines and utilize the existing national special zones. Such zones are particularly effective in border regions and cities. In conclusion, it is recommended to develop international research networks in the SREB zone, to establish an International Data Center, and to collect, organize, exchange, and publish jointly scientific information on the problems of transition to sustainable development.