Path to Non-Traditional Modernization in Ethnic Regions - Economic Development Models and Industry Choices in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Area

Author: Shi Shouxiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is one of the most unique and noteworthy regions in China and even in the world. Research on the development model of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau should adopt a new perspective. The prominent issues faced by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are ecological degradation and poverty among farmers and herdsmen. These issues amplify the cumulative effects of ecological insecurity and social instability, all of which are related to irrational regional development models. The development of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has its own uniqueness. Its strategic position, resource endowments, level of social development, and environmental characteristics determine that it must pursue a new path of modernization. The author believes that the development models of ecological economy, specialized economy, and human-centered development are realistic choices for the development strategy of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region. The development of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau should leverage its comparative advantages, develop specialized economies, and gradually form a specialized economic system supported by pillar industries in line with the basic principles and strategic goals of sustainable development in the region. In the future, this could include pillar industries such as green ecology and specialized agriculture and animal husbandry series, cultural industries centered on tourism, light industries dominated by ethnic industries, Tibetan medicine biopreparations, and local specialty product processing, as well as ecological protection and construction industries and advantageous mining and mineral industries. The ecological economic model of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is also different from other regions in inland China. In the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the essence of ecological economy is a survival substitution model. Comprehensive development, natural protection, and ecological migration are important practical forms. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region is backward, and fundamentally, it is socially backward. To revitalize the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, the key lies in improving people's capabilities, unleashing their potential, and implementing a "human-centered" development model. Economic development models must ultimately be implemented at the industry level, especially the development of pillar industries. Through comparison with the rest of the country, the author believes that specialized agriculture and animal husbandry, as well as mining and raw material industries, are the realistic pillar industries of the Qinghai-Tibet region. Tourism and Tibetan medicine processing are potential pillar industries in the light industry sector.