A Brief Analysis of Anhui Province from a native poitn of view
AnhuiProvincelocates in the middle part ofChina, an area of 139.60 thousand square kilometers, with a population of about 59.50 million. It is a province with rich water source, flowed through by Yangtze River,HuaiRiverandQiantangRiver, as well as rich mineral sources. Lagging behind some adjacent provinces or city though, such as Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, with a great potential, Anhui is to develop its prosperity. Below I shall give my arguments of both its advantages and disadvantages.
InAnhuiProvincethe three main industries are manufacturing, tourism, and agriculture.
As I mentioned before,Anhuiis benefited with rich mineral reserves including coal, iron, copper, etc. What I want to put forward in particular is molybdenum, non-renewable and of great importance, which is indispensable in metallurgy, chemical industry, mechanical industry, and space industry, and it is also a required element in lubricants. Rich mineral reserves can be defined as an advantage for manufacturing. Besides, labour force, cheap and ample, can be another strength for sure. Unilever put its factories here for example.
However, to make full advantage of all natural inheritance there lack some essential elements, such as money, technology, and infrastructure.Anhuiis in a delicate and embarrassing situation. In one way, it raises large amount of talents every year, but the majorities were attracted to other places. In one way it has plenty of resources, without advanced technology, talents or enough capital nothing can be done with them. In one way many investors have the interest and see great potential here, but rather frustrated with the existing infrastructure. These precious reserves remain wasted or being sold at a low price as a result.
As a native I feel thatAnhuiProvincecan be divided into two parts, the south and the north. The two parts are exactly like that of the wholeChina. The south part is more commercial one, while the north part is more about manufacturing, especially heavy industry. The issue of pollution in the north part is quite serious. Environment protection should be carried out immediately. As refer to the south part, where some famous tourist sites can not be recognized well because of the lame infrastructure. For example,JiuhuaMountain, one of the fourBuddhistMountainsinChina, has attracted very limited numbers of tourists because of no comfortable road, not to mention other facilities. This can be called waste as well.
My explanation is that dating back to the agricultural eraAnhuiwas the greatest victim of the flood because of the location and political as well as strategic reasons. That’s why it fell behind from the very beginning. Matthew Effect can best describe the reason why this province has long been lagged behind. However, the good news is that more and more youth would go back to their hometown because of the high and unbearable living cost in developped cities. What they bring back is funds as well as knowledge. At the same time some merchants agree to invest in some infrastructure construction expecting high returns. Lacking advantages as these coastal provinces though,AnhuiProvincemust take its own developping mode to make success. I believe first of all, wise policies set by a more efficient provincial government would be foremost important. Then it is adapting what the other provinces are doing according to its own conditions. It’s easy to say. To tell the truth I feel it’s impossible to achieve these two goals in a short period of time. And I believe in the next decadesAnhuiProvincewould continue being lagged behind. The only change is that more and more heavily polluted industries, as well as labor-intensive ones shall be transfered from coastal cities here. That’s cruel, but a rather compulsory, or effective way to go. The only thing is whether the local government can bear in mind that the environment and resources are just invaluable. No development shall be done at the cost of pollution and over-exploitation. Personally speaking, I don’t have the confidence that the local officials would be that calm and wise. So it would be still a long way to go.
