Case Study Pearl River Delta Flashcards
Location?
Guangdong Province, China
Apx size of Belgium w 44 million people
Key settlements in area?
Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen (World’s 6th largest container port)
Industrial activity?
Mixed secondary and quaternary (e.g. electrical equipment, petrochemicals, Honda)
Development effect on area: positives for China?
- The ‘new workshop of the world’
- 25,000 factories alone in Dongguan provide jobs
- Whole area is set to to have pop of 44m - worlds largest mega city
- Industrial development is essential for jobs, wages, the economy and development: 30 m jobs will be provided
- Outsourcing gives local people new skills
Development effect on area: negative for MEDCs?
- Chinese gov may impose laws: uncertainty over whether operations allowed, scrutinised, restricted
- China can dictate who comes into the region and who stays
Development effect on area: positive for MNCs?
- Focal point of foreign investment in China through MNCs - e.g. Wal-Mart, IBM, Samsung
- In 1980, GDP of PRD was $8 bn now its $100 bn - prosperity
- Excellent infrastructure being built e.g. container port and worlds longest bridge along delta
- Multiplier effect: money is spent locally and more industries attracted to area
- No environmental laws as Guangdong eager to inside foreign investment
- No trade unions and poor labour laws: low wages max. profit
- Increasing personal wealth means large local market emerging
- HK nearby to locate a regional HQ - HK laws are less restrictive for foreigners than the rest of China
Development effect on area: negative for MNCs?
- Regional HQ for some MNCs Guangdong province due to political differences: inefficient operations
- Outsourcing can then develop skills leading to China developing its equivalent MNCs - foreign MNCs not as welcome or needed in Guangdong
Development affect on area: negative for workers?
- Exploitation through low pay/long hours
- No social benefits if job is lost
- No health benefits
- Poor working conditions
Environmental concerns: physical - air pollution?
- Smog due to power plants burning coals, industry and transport
- Acid rain (chemical reaction of certain chemicals w/ precipitation: NOx and SO2 are 2-3 times higher in in PRD than elsewhere in China)
- Leads to contaminated lakes and streams - dead water which looks crystal clear
- Dead vegetation
Environmental concerns: human - air pollution?
- Asthma
- Often exacerbated because people can’t afford health care
- Alzheimer’s from drinking water contaminated by acid rain
Environmental concerns: physical - water pollution?
- From factory waste and untreated sewage
- They use cheapest way to get rid of contaminated water
- PR water in Guangzhou is only suitable for farm use - not drinkable
- Eutrophication and biologically dead river
Environmental concerns: human - water pollution?
- Typhoid, cholera & dysentery
- Deaths
- Often exacerbated because people can’t afford healthy care
Environmental concerns: physical - ecosystems?
- Land clearance for urbanisation and industrialisation has led to reduction in forest cover and soil erosion (desertification)
- PRD is home to the Chinese white dolphin: pollution is poisoning it so it is now endangered species
Environmental concerns: human - ecosystems?
Farmers use high amounts of chemicals and contaminated water to maximise their crops or feed the growing population and so pass the poisons up the food chain.
- BIOACCUMULATION
Management strategies: The PRD air quality management?
- Reduce air pollution generally by 2010
- SO2 emissions from power plants to be reduced by 40% from 1997 levels
- To do this by reducing dependence on coal by switching to natural gas which has lower emissions
