Multi-level Regional Governance and Spatial Development in the Pearl River Delta

Abstract

In the deepening process of globalisation, reactions to socio-economic activities and resolutions of urban problems have to move from the urban scale to the regional scale. Coordinated development of urban agglomerations becomes a vital strategy for China to respond to the challenges and opportunities brought by globalisation. Urban agglomeration in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) has accumulated rich experience in regional coordinated development, including regional planning practice and cooperation of infrastructure development. In this chapter, various versions of PRD regional plans are reviewed, including the Plan for the Urban System in the PRD (1991) and the Planning Framework for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (China Central and State Council (2019) Planning framework for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (2019–2035). China Central and Sate Council Printing Office, Beijing). Practice of coordinated development in the PRD is reviewed at four levels: cooperation at ministry-province level, cooperation at province-municipality level, integrative development at municipal level and coordination at town/district level. It is shown that regional coordinated development in the PRD has gradually deepened from the regional level to the municipality and the town/district level. The transformation and adjustment of their roles, the construction of common interests and the innovation of ‘incentive regulation’ mechanisms are not only the basis of coordinated development, but also key elements to promoting the planning process.