By Wang Shulong & Liu Xiaoge, Personnel Bureau of General Office, DRC

Research Report, No.289, 2020 (Total 6354) 2021-9-28

Abstract: In recent years, the economic gap between China’s northern and southern regions has widened. It is mainly due to the fact that based on booming informatization, China’s growth mode has shifted from rapid industrialization to a new stage of IT-based industrialization in the information era. The sci-tech-and-market-based drivers have replaced the resources-and-elements-based ones for economic growth. Since traditional industries in north China account for a high proportion in the total, the sluggish old drivers and the inadequate new growth drivers have resulted in the slowdown of economic development in the north and widening gap between north and south. The key to narrowing the gap lies in accelerating the shift from old drivers to new ones in the north. The authorities in north China need to renew their minds, deepen reforms, seize opportunities of the new technological revolution, speed up industrial transformation and upgrading, optimize the business environment, focus on major issues, encourage key cities to play a leading role in stimulating the development of surrounding areas, further advance opening up, channel more effort into the cultivation and training of government staff and move faster to develop new economic drivers.

Keywords: the south-north gap, shift of growth drivers, regional balance