Assessing the incentives in regional city-to-city cooperation: a case study of Jiangyin-Jingjiang Industrial Park of Jiangsu Province in the Yangtze River Delta region

Abstract

With the rise of cities as geographical units, intercity cooperation has been increasing worldwide. Benefits of regional city-to-city (C2C) cooperation can be seen in the political added value and added value of urban competitiveness. This paper focuses on the Jiangyin-Jingjiang Industrial Park in the Yangtze River Delta region as a case study to explore these benefits in regional C2C cooperation in China's local context. It is found that political added value is more effective and efficient in accelerating strategy formulation and partner selection within regional C2C cooperation. The added value of urban competitiveness is more crucial in regional C2C partnership maintenance serving as an internal driving force for sustainable C2C cooperation. In addition, intervention from the provincial government tends to consolidate the impact of urban competitiveness in regional C2C cooperation. The empirical study also sheds light on the dynamics of China's economic decentralisation, political centralisation and the market logic interwoven with state authority. © 2012 Victoria University of Wellington.

随着城市作为地理单元的崛起，城市间的合作正在全球范围内不断涌现。通过引入城市竞争力的视角，本文将区域城市间合作（Regional City-to-city cooperation）所带来的收益划分为政治附加值和城市竞争力附加值，并以长江三角洲地区江苏江阴-靖江工业园区为案例着重审视和探讨了中国本土语境下区域城市间合作的激励机制。本研究发现对于推动区域城市间合作战略的形成和伙伴城市的选择，政治附加值更加有效；而对于区域城市间合作关系的维系，城市竞争力附加值则更为关键。因此，城市竞争力附加值是可持续的城市间合作的内在推动力。本文的实证研究折射出转型期中国的经济分权与政治集中，以及市场逻辑与国家权利逻辑的相互交织。