International Roundup, Vol 18, No 2

The Rise Of China - 25 Years of Globalization

Reprinted with permission from Hanscomb Means Report, International Construction Intelligence, Vol. 16, No. 9, July/August 2004.

Introductory paragraphs

When Deng Xiaoping initiated economic reform policies in 1979 China was a relatively closed society After gaining control in 1949, the communist government had limited trading partners. Historically China moves from open trade - the Silk Road - to discouraging trade - portions of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Is China poised to become the powerful global presence its size would ordain?

The first economic reforms focused primarily on agriculture, but China began to open cautiously to the world. The government established five Special Economic Zones-three in Guangdong Province - in 1980. Other economic zones followed as the reforms expanded. The slow transition from centrally planned economy continued. In 1992, the economic reform program moved into the "socialist market economy" period. The move to open trade culminated in China's admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) - after much negotiation - in December 2001.

The coastal region - where most of the population lives - has attracted most of the foreign investment. China's "Western Development Strategy" began in 2000 to attract development in the inland regions. Realized values of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China reached USD 500 billion by the end of 2003. FDI totaled less than USD 19 billion during the 1980s.

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