ILWS - Charles Sturt University
ILWS - Charles Sturt University

Achieving Balanced Growth in External and Domestic Environments in China (2012-2014)

Strategic Research Area

Sustainable Business Development in Regional Australia

Funding

AusAID Australian Leadership Award Fellowship Grant($136,000); and CSU ($27,000)

Investigators/ Researchers

Prof John Hicks, (project leader) ILWS, A/Prof PK Basu, ILWS, Prof Kishor Sharma, ILWS,  Dr Yapa Bandara, ILWS

Description

China is the second largest economy and the largest single contributor to trade in the world. China's growth has been primarily dependent on producing manufacturing goods for the export market, while production for the (huge) domestic market of 1.3 billion people has been overlooked.

The recent global financial crisis (GFC) has shown how interdependent China and the rest of the world have become and, within China, raised two main areas of concern:(a) maintaining the balance between export market-oriented growth and (b) minimising the divide between the urban (generally coastal) and rural (generally inland) development. The aim of this project was to develop policies and strategies for achieving balanced growth in China. Five themes were pursued:

  • Adjustment of China's Economy after the Global Financial Crisis toward Internal and External Balance
  • Managing Openness of the Chinese Economy to Sustain its Economic Growth
  • The Evolving Pattern of Australia-China Bilateral Trade in a Global Perspective
  • Growing Regional Interdependence in China - Institutional Issues of Internal Labor Movement
  • Study of Cross-border Investment Risk of China's Enterprises - Comparison between China's Private Enterprises and State-owned Ones

The project demonstrated that seeking to switch from investment driven growth in China to growth driven by consumption was problematic. Subsequent work is tending to suggest that policy action to initiate such a switch may not even be necessary.

Outputs

One conference paper and one journal submission.

Outcomes

The expected outcome is policies and strategies for achieving balanced growth in China.

CONTACT                                      
Prof John Hicks
Charles Sturt University – Bathurst
email

February 2015