A Regional Innovation System in Gestation: Guangdong

Abstract

This article examines industrial and technological growth in the province of Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta. It is based on a report drawn up by a team of researchers and professors under the authority of the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong province, and on interviews with local authorities and enterprises. It examines the growth in Guangdong's research and technology system, enterprise investment in Research and Development (R&D), the particular role of collective enterprises, the technological development zones, and the policy of industrial "clusters". Since 1999, the provincial authorities have sought to respond to the transformation of industrial space, by offering to set up a series of innovation centres located in specialised production areas. This article offers an initial assessment of this strategy of transforming industrial space into regional innovation space.