Events

• Professor Geng Xiao
  Faculty of Business and Economics & Faculty of Social Sciences
  The University of Hong Kong

Foshan, a city of 7 million population located at the heart of China’s Pearl River Delta, has achieved higher per capita GDP than Beijing and Shanghai while keeping its housing costs to only about one fifth of Beijing and Shanghai. What has Foshan done right? What can we learn from Foshan’s experiences about the future of China, including its potentials and problems? This presentation will explore answers to these questions by reviewing Foshan’s process of rapid industrialization and urbanization, focusing particularly on the role of the state and market in China’s integration into global value chain and China’s shift from the land-based and employment driven growth towards the new people-based growth driven by innovation and sustainability. The contents of the presentation will be based on a major citylevel case study published by the CITIC Press in 2017 (English title: The Future of China: The Foshan Model; Chinese titles: 中国未来：佛山模式 and 政府与市场：中国经验) as well as some recent updates from field research.