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The Program of
West China Development (WCD) is a key component of the regional development
strategy of China in the new century. It has played an
important role in China’s strive for modernization. The central
government of China has clearly expressed its determination to
further promote the development of West China. In order to strengthen the links and cooperation
between institutions for studies of WCD, over 30 experts and scholars from
Columbia University, University of Michigan, Central University of Japan,
Chongqing University, Yunnan University, Xinjiang University, Ningxia
University, Sichuan University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics,
Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, the No.2 Northwest College for Ethnic
Minorities, Ningxia Academy of Social Sciences, Sichuan Academy of Social
Sciences, Sichuan Provincial Office for WCD, and Chengdu
Municipal Office for WCD met in Chengdu on December
11, 2003 for a seminar on WCD and discussed the establishment of “the
Consortium for West China Development Studies” (or CWCDS). The Comprehensive
Planning Division of the Office for West China Development of the State Council
of China, the Research Institute of Territorial Development and Regional
Economics of the State Commission for Development and Reform sent their letters
congratulating the conference and expressed their support for CWCDS.
The WCD program
has been paid much attention by academic societies in and outside of China, especially in West China. Many universities and research
institutions in West
China have
established various research centers for WCD and built special websites for
their West China studies. Numerous papers, reports,
books and journals have been published on West China Development. Each research
center has built its specialized fields and made some achievements by focusing
their studies on those key socioeconomic issues in their
regions.
Due to the lack of cooperative mechanisms
and limit of personnel and physical resources, many studies on WCD
are relatively isolated at small scales. Some projects are overlapped each
other with low quality. Those projects have very limited influence on
academic research or government policies. T
hose
studies on WCD need cooperation by scholars from different
regions in West China and
other parts of the world. Those research institutions and scholars in West
China need collaborate closely in order to provide scientific evidence
for local and central government in their decision-making.
The consortium is designed to
promote cooperation among universities, research institutions, and government
agencies by building a collaborative platform and network, which may help
improve the research quality and have more influence on decision-making by the
government at different levels. The mission of the consortium is to get more
support for west studies, to promote information exchanges and sharing on west
development, to promote the collaboration on west studies domestically and
internationally, and to make a great contribution to the education and research
in the western regions and the socioeconomic development of western regions.
Prof. Jeff
Sachs from Columbia University serves as the chair for the overseas
advisory committee and Prof. Wu Jinglian from the Development Research Center of the State Council serves as the
chair of the domestic advisory committee. The China Office is affiliated
to the West China Development Academy of Sichuan University, which
is in charge of coordination between institutions in China
and the routine operation of the
consortium,
with Prof. Zhao Changwen as the General
Secretary and Prof. Wang Yiqian of Sichuan University
and Dr. Shi Yulong of the Research Institute of
Territorial Development and Regional Economics of the State Commission for
Development and Reform as the Deputy General Secretaries. The U.S. Office
is affiliated to the China Data Center of the University of Michigan,
which coordinates the collaboration and exchanges between overseas institutions, with
Prof. Wing Thye Woo as the General Secretary and
Dr. Bao Shuming and Prof. Penelope B. Prime of Mercer University as the
Deputy General Secretaries.
The consortium has held two successful annual
conferences in Chengdu in 2004 (http://chinadatacenter.org/westchina2004) and
in Yinchuan in 2005 (http://chinadatacenter.org/westchina2005/
).
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