Recently, the Publicity Department of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and the Federation of Social Science Circles of Guangdong Province jointly launched a selection event for the Third Outstanding Social Scientist Award. A total of 10 scholars including Prof. Tao Yitao won the award. Prof. Tao, Director of China Center for Special Economic Zone Research (CCSEZR), Shenzhen University (SZU), President of the Belt and Road Research Institute (BRRI), and also President of the Belt and Road Research Institute (Shenzhen) for International Cooperation and Development (BRRIICD), accepted an exclusive interview with a journalist from Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.
“The full-swing construction of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) pours forth in a gush of new thoughts and also precipitates a spate of new challenges, which provides a great space and imagination for research and innovation by social science scholars.”At BRRI of Shenzhen University, Prof. Tao Yitao shared her views and research achievements with the journalist. Focus on “economic development”: From the SEZ mode to China’s Path
Prof. Tao Yitao has long devoted herself to the research on Chinese and western economic thoughts and theories covering the economic history, the history of economic thought, and institutional economics. After she came to Shenzhen University from hinterland in 1993, she gradually shifted her research focus to the history of China’s reform and opening-up, the history of economic thought, the history of China’s SEZ development, the comparative study of Chinese and foreign SEZs, and the comparative study of Chinese and foreign Free Trade Zones (FTZs) and bay areas. Her representative works On the History of China’s Special Economic Zones and Special Economic Zones and China's Path have been translated into English, German, Arabic, Russian, and Mongolian and published in UK, Germany, Egypt, Russia, and Mongolia successively.
When reflecting on her own research journey, she said: “It’s hard to write articles of practical significance, if a scholar fails to base his/her academic thoughts and standpoint on real-world issues. Only by putting theory into practice can one improve his theoretical cognitive skills.”
Prof. Tao Yitao believed that SEZ, an integral component of China’s Path, is a starting point for China. China’s initiatives from SEZs through FTZs to Greater Bay Areas are a manifestation of the agglomeration effect, siphon effect, and spreading effect that reflect China’s path of progressive reform towards modernization. Chinese government has constantly built new economic growth poles through policy-making to drive China’s institutional change. “Siphon effect” of the growth pole will continuously magnetize quality production factors including talent to Shenzhen. The diffusing effect will kick in to drive economic growth in surrounding areas and become the exporter of manufacturing system and evaluation system when the accumulation of factors reaches an extent.
“Innovation —— driving force behind the robust growth of Shenzhen.” The robust high-tech industrial structure gives added strength to the booming private enterprises and allows Shenzhen’s economy to grow with both speed and quality.She explained that to transition from “Assembled in China” to “Made in China” requires us to shift from policy opening to institutional opening, and to transition from labor-intensive industry to capital- and technology-intensive industry requires innovation more than institutional opening. Only in this way can we optimize the industrial structure, change the landscape of foreign trade and win China the say-so and dominance in rule-making in the international economic affairs.
Serve the “Belt and Road Initiative”: Reform and opening-up begins with the change of concept In a foreign exchange, a Pakistani scholar said to Prof. Tao Yitao that “Pakistan has neither capital nor technology, but with both on hand it will also develop.”Prof. Tao responded to the scholar at once: “The economy will indeed not develop without capital or technology. But with only capital and technology on hand, the economy may not necessarily develop as well.”She used China’s case to change how a lot of Pakistani scholars, this one in particular, think about economic development. She said that China’s reform and opening-up seemed to begin with economic development, but in fact it started with “change of concept”. Shenzhen was the very first city in China to put forward the slogan “Time is money. Efficiency is life” and the concept “Reform is a must though it may fail”.
In recent years, Prof. Tao Yitao’s research on the theory and practice of the SEZs has played a greater role following the proposal of the “Belt and Road Initiative”. Prof. Tao was invited to give development planning and consultation on the SEZs and FTZs by a lot of institutions, countries and regions including African Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program, Vietnam, Russia, South Africa, Rwanda, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan. Increasing appearances in the economic and cultural exchanges among different countries has made her a messenger to introduce Chinese concepts to the outside world as a spreader of the BRI.
Through extensive overseas field visits, and research, Prof. Tao gradually found that the promotion of the “Belt and Road Initiative” depends more on the institution and culture than the technology and capital. The BRI is not the output of China’s surplus capital and technology but a practice of a cross-border regional community with greater radiating influence on larger geographical areas. An internal mechanism of trans-regional economic integration needs to be formed based on cultural respect, tolerance, and mutual understanding to build a “Community with a Shard Future” with the countries along the route.
Build “new growth poles”: Serve the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area) with joint efforts
Prof. Tao Yitao began to think about another question in her recent researches: Why will the Greater Bay Area in the Pearl River Delta be China’s next economic growth pole? Prof. Tao Yitao said that from the implementation perspective of the BRI, the Greater Bay Area is the best platform for the Going Global strategy as the communication between the early immigrants and many Chinese has laid a natural foundation for cultural exchanges and mutual understanding in the Greater Bay Area and the region of Southeast Asia. The transnational transfer of industrial clusters in the Pearl River Delta has formed an appropriate intermediate zone in Hong Kong and Macao, and moreover, the abundant private capital in the Greater Bay Area provides a strong capital and technical support for the Going Global strategy.
“China chooses the path of SEZs blazing the trail to showcase the unique charm and institutional advantages of the socialist market economy. SEZs play the role of social transformation, change of concept, and institutional transition.”Prof. Tao believed that SEZs, FTZs, and the Greater Bay Area embody the evolution and development of both China’s path and institution going side by side at different stages. Though equally important milestones for China’s economic growth, yet the Greater Bay Area and SEZs shoulder varied missions at different times and form a natural logical connection of China's Path. “The Greater Bay Area is a platform that offers a chance for China to go international and for the whole world to capitalize on China’s development. It will become a model initiative with stronger radiating influence and spreading effect to deepen China’s social reform, build an innovative country, and broaden opening-up.”Build a “Discourse System”: Join hands in building the “Community with a Shared Future”
As the Deputy Party Committee Secretary of SZU, Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Party Committee Secretary and dean of the College of Economics SZU, Prof. Tao Yitao is equally busy in her administrative and academic roles. But in the last 20 plus years, she has still been active in writing and publishing books, research reports and journals including the Annual Report on the Development of China’s Special Economic Zones (Blue Paper), Blue Paper of China's Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Index, and Study on the Belt and Road Initiative. As for how to maintain a work-personal life balance, Tao Yitao had her own set of “Happiness Principles”.
“You will gain the joy when you treat academic research as a way of life and love and enjoy it.”Prof. Tao said that happiness lies in learning how to make reasonable choices and adjusting the time and pace, “I love business travel during which the several hours without being disturbed on the plane are the best time for relax and creation.”
Finally, when talking about the responsibilities as a scholar, Prof. Tao who is fully confident with China’s Path said that Chinese scholars need to go international and build our own academic discourse system with a broad and open mind, and achieve the mutual recognition on the value and understanding of the history and development background. This is also what China has always sought after to achieve value inclusiveness, deepen understanding, and eliminate confrontation for a Community with a Shared Future.
(Author: Dute journalist Li Li Intern Ma Xiaoqian/article Chen Minzhi/picture/video
