Private Sector Development and China’s Regional Urbanization: A Survey

The rapid development of the private sector is a significant force for promoting Chinese market development and urbanization. According to statistics, urbanization level is naturally high in the cities and regions where private sector has been developing rapidly. As industrialization and urbanization are closely related, private sector promotes rural urbanization through the development of non-agricultural industries, particularly the rural industrialization. The enterprises clusters and specialized industrial districts of the private sector have enhanced spatial agglomeration of population, resources and production factors, and raised the level of regional urbanization. In Zhejiang and Jiangsu, the southeast coast area, the private sector has been able to continuously and effectively promote urbanization and economic and social development, which led to the development and growth of private sector driven by spontaneous folk behavior and at the same time complying with market rules. Government regulates the private sector development in accordance with the laws of the market, boosting the development process of the private sector. Privatization in Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and other border and inland areas doesn’t reach the level of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, it is precisely in that the mode of private economy development in inland regions was/is “blindly man-made + government-led,” those inland provinces were/are often departing from the market rules and implementing privatization for privatization.