BY SUNDAY, 24 provincial-level regions had disclosed their economic growth statistics over the first three quarters. The polarization tendency of local growth is evident, with Yunnan and Guizhou provinces registering the fastest growth of 8.8 percent and 8.7 percent respectively, and Heilongjiang province the slowest at 4.3 percent. 21st Century Business Herald comments:

Of the 24 regions 17 had seen declines in their growth rates to various degrees from January to September year-on-year. It is fair to say that local development has entered a new stage, which calls for the formation of a national unified commodity and production factor market so that resources can be effectively distributed nationwide and inter-regional competition intensified.

In this process, it is no surprise that different provinces and cities have assumed different positions in the national division of labor, which is reflected in their increasingly differentiated rates of growth and economic structures.

The city clusters, such as those in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, will serve as national growth poles. The central government has recognized 19 national-level city clusters across the country, and they will compete with each other on the basis of the integrated national market.

The other regions should take advantage of their comparative advantages to ensure food security, ecological security and border security, and use their advantage to develop the local economy.

In the meantime, the central government needs to divert more attention to keeping the development gap between regions, and rural and urban areas staying within a rational range, and tilting more funds and favorable policies to the backward regions to ensure local public services can meet the basic needs of the population.

Despite different roles to be played by different regions, the people, irrespective of where they are from, deserve equitable access to the means of pursuing personal development, the legal guarantee to protect their property rights, and the freedom to move around the country to seek a better life.

So the competition among local governments, which drives national reform and opening-up, should focus more on improving their public services, business environment, and living and natural environment to attract talents, rather than simply seeking to attract investment or artificially beefing up the fast growth of a certain industry for the sake of making local economic growth look good.