PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2015, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (3): 302-312.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2015.03.005

• Urban Agglomeration • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Development strategy of the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration under the current socioeconomic situation

Chunshan ZHOU1,2, Wanfu JIN1,2, Chenyi SHI1,2   

  1. 1. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
    2. Guangdong Key Laboratory for Urbanization and Geo-simulation, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
  • Received:2015-02-01 Revised:2015-03-01 Online:2015-03-25 Published:2015-03-25

Abstract:

Recently, domestic and international economic situations have changed significantly. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) area in this period of transition is facing unprecedented challenges, and development strategies for the PRD need to be reconsidered. This article reviews the development process of the PRD and analyzes its development situation. Then, the PRD is compared with the urban agglomerations at home and abroad. The results show that in 2000-2013, the economic development and the population growth of the PRD have slowed down; the disparity of regional economic development has gradually narrowed; the industrial development tends to be more advanced; and economic globalization has decreased. At present, the level of development and competitiveness of the PRD is much weaker than world-class urban agglomerations. Compared with the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Uban Agglomerations, the speed of development in the Pearl River Delta area has decreased. The PRD should attach greater importance to technology innovation of industries, intensification of land-use, innovation of population policy, regional cooperation, and humanistic concerns under the new conditions.

Key words: Pearl River Delta, urban agglomeration, development strategy