Download or read book A Comparative Study of the Business Environment of Guangzhou and Shanghai written by Yin-Yi Joey Lee and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-27 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation, "A Comparative Study of the Business Environment of Guangzhou and Shanghai" by Yin-yi, Joey, Lee, 李燕怡, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of dissertation entitled A Comparative Study of the Business Environment of Guangzhou and Shanghai Submitted by Lee Yin Yi, Joey For the degree of Master of Arts (China Area Studies) at The University of Hong Kong in June 2004 Since the late 1970s, under Deng's rule, the central government has decided to develop Guangdong as the 'one step ahead' in China. Having fully benefited from the support of the central government, Guangdong, in particular the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region has successfully built up its favourable business environment and has enjoyed the great economic growth since the 1980s. Among various cities in the PRD, the provincial capital Guangzhou, has incessantly gained the dominant position in economic growth. After consolidating the economic position of southern China, the Yangtze River Delta has become another centre attention to the central government in the national development programme since the 1990s. By opening Pudong and positioning Shanghai as the leader of the Yangtze River Region for attracting domestic commerce and foreign investment, the central government intended to create the Yangtze River Delta as another ideal business environment in China. The Yangtze Delta has successfully developed its favourable environment for business activities since the 1990s. Reviewing the twenty-year reform, the emergence of the successful business environment in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta for boosting economic and commercial activities seems to be the economic engine of the whole China's economic development. As the premier cities of the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta respectively, the business environment of Guangzhou and Shanghai are the best representations of the new economic direction and situation in China, thus they serve as the worthwhile study topic in understanding China's contemporary development. The objective of this study is to examine the similarities and differences of Guangzhou and Shanghai in terms of business environment and to explore the economic importance of Guangzhou and Shanghai for China's development during the past two decades. Finally, this study can conclude that, in spite of many similarities, there is no direct competition occurred between Shanghai and Guangzhou in terms of business environment as their levels of development are somehow different. As long as Shanghai provides better conditions for upbringing the business environment, Shanghai enjoys the overall better development than Guangzhou. There is still a considerable gap for Guangzhou to catch up Shanghai in a short term. Nevertheless, there is little evidence that Shanghai is preferable to Guangzhou for operating business. Both cities carry their own economic uniqueness in their regions. Shanghai undeniably serves as the Asian metropolitan of China, whereas Guangzhou acts as the regional economic centre in southern China. Shanghai is the dragonhead of eastern China and involves more international business activities; Guangzhou mainly serves southern China and engages close interactions with Hong Kong and Macau. DOI: 10.5353/th_b2980664