China

Most studies of the opening of the Chinese economy focus at the national level. The few existing disaggregated analyses are limited to analyzing changes in agricultural... Show More + production. The authors use an innovative village equilibrium model that accounts for nonseparability of household production and consumption decisions. This allows them to analyze the impact of trade liberalization on household production, consumption, and off-farm employment, as well as the interactions among these three aspects of household decisions. They use the village model to analyze the impact of price changes and labor demand, the two major pathways through which international trade affects households. Analyzing the impact of trade liberalization for one village in the Jiangxi province of China, the authors find changes in relative prices and outside village employment to have opposite impacts on household decisions. At the household level the impact of price changes dominates the employment impacts. Comparing full trade liberalization and the more limited Doha scenario, reactions are more modest in the latter case for most households, but the response is nonlinear to increasing depth of trade reforms. This is explained by household-specific transaction (shadow) prices in combination with endogenous choices to participate in the output markets. Rising income inequalities are a growing concern in China. Whether trade liberalization allows incomes to grow together or to grow apart depends on whether one accounts for the reduction in consumption demand when household members migrate. Assessing the net effect on the within-village income distribution, the authors find that poorer households that own draught power gain most from trade liberalization. The households that have to rely on the use of own labor for farm activities and are not endowed with traction power, nor with a link to employment opportunities in the prospering coastal regions, have fewer opportunities for adjustment. Show Less -

Within the framework of the China Fuzhou Urban Transport Project, this environmental assessment summary outlines the funding of transport infrastructure, discusses likely... Show More + negative environmental impacts, and proposes measures to mitigate such impacts. Risks and mitigation includes the following: site selection and layout will be carefully planned to minimize impacts on the surrounding environment. High walls will be installed around the perimeter to reduce noise disturbances, while the power generator, air compressors and maintenance facility will be located away from sensitive receptors. Furthermore, the structures housing these facilities and operations will be designed to abate noise disturbances. All buses and equipment should be in good conditions, in order to better control air emissions. Bus idling on site and traffic congestion will be strictly controlled. Construction design regarding air ventilation will be geared towards efficient emission dispersion, to minimize pollutant built up. Domestic wastewater will be discharged into onsite septic tanks, and, first flush rainwater and effluent waters will be collected onto special tanks, to be diverted into an oil/water separator mechanism, which in turn will then be discharged onto the municipal sewer leading to the Jinshan wastewater treatment plant for further treatment, prior to the final release into the environment. All bus depot structures will be designed to encompass the high voltage power transmission lines; in particular, the structures' heights should be within safety range and lightening-proof measures. The fueling facility design will follow strict applicable design codes, and include provisions for static electricity, lightening, and fire, within a safe distance. The underground fuel tanks will have a secondary container, in addition to a monitoring facility to detect potential leaks. The fueling station staff will be trained, and equipped for emergency response concerning fires and/or fuel spills. Show Less -

The participation manual aims to provide guidance to management staff and facilitators at county and township levels on how to implement and monitor the participation... Show More + approach in Poor Rural Communities Development Project (PRCDP). PRCDP aims to improve livelihoods and capacities for sustainable self development of the poorest groups in provinces within the project. Effective cooperation between the government, project and target groups has become the key condition for success of PRCDP. To achieve this, PRCDP is working to ensure sustained and effective participation of poor groups, women, ethnic minorities and marginalized groups throughout the whole project cycle: from poverty analysis and development planning to implementing, monitoring, evaluating and revising project activities. Poverty alleviation projects in China are increasingly using participatory approaches. However, there are wide differences in understanding of participation with no guidelines or manuals covering areas such as poverty assessment, limited relevant practical experience, and a shortage of facilitators. As a result, the use and impact of genuinely participatory approaches throughout the project cycle have been severely limited. The most serious problem has been the failure of poor groups to participate effectively, particularly in decision making, which has directly impacted on the success of development projects. Show Less -

Feeding megacities : a worldwide viewpoint. A tale of two cities : feeding Beijing and Delhi. Nobody need starve. Business takes a new look at inner cities. Farming... Show More + inside and around cities. The global threat to food security. Keeping food flowing into cities. Peruvian kitchens - a recipe for success. The challenge to wholesale markets. Food in the new century. Show Less -

Since the beginning of economic reform in the late 1970s, rural China has witnessed unprecedented large increases in agricultural productivity. During the same period,... Show More + the economic growth in urban areas has created substantial demand for labor. As a result, more than 100 million rural surplus laborers seek their livelihood in the cities. However, this large influx of rural migrants has created tremendous pressure on land-use, infrastructure and services in towns and cities, particularly the large ones. This report consists of three parts. Part one contains the commissioned theme papers by international and local experts. Part two presents abridged versions of 23 of the written contributions by domestic participants, for which English translations were made available. Part three gives the summary of the workshops findings and concluding remarks. Show Less -

During the 1980s, economic activity within China's cities and statutory towns, which accounts for more than half of the gross domestic product, grew at well over 10... Show More + percent per annum. In addition, the urban population grew at a rate of 5 percent per year between the census of 1982 and that of 1990. By 1990, 26 percent of China's population lived in urban areas. In spite of this vigorous expansion, the built-up areas of cities totaled only 12,000 square kilometers (km) in 1990, with an additional 8,251 square km under development in statutory towns. By contrast, total cultivated land in China totaled at least 1 million square km and the built-up area of rural villages and townships occupied an additional 140,000 square km. This report's main theme is that although the land area involved is small, urban land management reform is required to accelerate the efficient expansion of a regulated market economy, where land is treated as any other commodity, and where many complementary measures involving planning, legal and regulatory institutions, taxation and information infrastructure are in place. The key objective of the reform is to create property markets, where land and structures are traded at prices set competitively. This will improve the efficiency with which a key input of production is used and promote the emergence of internationally competitive cities. Show Less -

In this issue: Feature article: Affordable shelter and urban development: 1972-82; by Douglas Keare. Completed research: Natural resources and planning: issues in trade... Show More + and investment. Analytics of change in rural communities. Traffic restraint in Singapore. Income distribution in Thailand. Industrial statistics. New research: Analysis of the tax systems in developing countries: applications to Pakistan and Mexico. Collaborative research with China (Phase II). Supply responses of aggregate crops output. Agricultural mechanization in Africa: review and prospects. New and forthcoming publications. Show Less -