The Governmental Reformation of West Development(2005年公共管理国际会议论文).doc

The Governmental Reformation of West Development 1.NI Guo-liang 2.WEI Ying-jie School of Politics and Administration, Lanzhou University, Gansu, P.R. China, 730000 Abstract The government was the main organizer and participant of the last several meetings concerning the issue of Western Development. From the past two decades of reform, we know that system environment is an effective service provided by the government. The roles and functions between the central government and the local government vary. The effect of the central government is mainly demonstrated in solving the problems of system innovation and infrastructure construction. However, the function of the local government is embodied in the choice of contact in system innovation and specific system arrangement. Only by knowing the functions and the effects respectively, can we overcome the obstacles in the system of Western Development. Key words western development, system innovation, role of the government 1 Introduction In the past, people habitually thought that the sluggishness of economic development in western China was mainly caused by the outdated ideas, inefficiency and strategic faults of the government. Objectively speaking, the sluggish development is linked with the role the government plays in the development of the regional economy. In all of the previous campaigns of “Developing the West”, the government, as the main organizer and participant, worked on making development strategies and distributing major resources. Such work made people put their hope in the government. However, the results were not satisfactory. The economic reformation of the past 20 years has proved that in the development of the regional economy, the government can supply only one efficient service- that is a nice institutional environment. In the “Developing the West” campaign, there are several obstacles that affect further economic development, such as the co-existence of the market economy and the pl