The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) seems to have made it a tradition to release a new rating list of the 100 strongest counties every year. It did so in the last week of September, just a few days before the National Day and the following holiday week.

The rating list measures the changes in counties, which were once heavily agrarian-based societies, where most people (certainly all farmers) and activities used to be on the county level, as opposed to the few industrial cities.

Over the past two decades or so, many counties, especially those in the coastal provinces, have been trying to cast off their old agrarian image, which is often synonymous with being underdeveloped in the Chinese context. From small factories and trade fares occupying extensive areas to large factories and overseas procurement services, they have managed to turn local communities into hotbeds for self-made entrepreneurs and their networks. These local economies have seen a rapid growth, as measured by gross domestic product, the average income level, as well as tax revenue for local governments.

NBS's rating list this year, as in past years, reveals that most of the stronger counties are located in the eastern and southern parts of the country, and many along the coast.

Of the strongest 11 counties, Jiangsu, the province in the north of Shanghai, the largest port and trading hub in the Chinese mainland, has claimed seven of them. Jiangsu has altogether 17 counties in the list of 100.

While Zhejiang, the province to the south of Shanghai, had a harvest of 30 slots in the list, making it the largest group power in the nation. The province of Guangdong, which shares the border with Hong Kong, has kept only eight slots, two fewer than in 2005, showing no progress in competing with other provinces. In contrast, the coastal province in Shandong in northern China has been an unchallengeable champion. It grabbed 22 slots, two more than last year's list.

In the vast western frontier regions, only three counties made their way into the top 100, from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Sichuan.

Based on the 2005 statistics, the 100 counties accounted for 25 per cent of the economy of all Chinese counties, and more than 30 per cent of their tax revenues, on only less 1.5 per cent of their total land.

While these figures definitely show the development in the coastal provinces, they also indicate how much the other provinces are lagging behind in transforming their rural economies. The gap is huge between the coastal and interior-frontier regions in terms of wealth and income.

At the same time, it is also mind-boggling why the coastal provinces can develop so fast and for so long. Their access to the overseas market is a decisive factor. In fact, the 100 strongest counties claimed two-thirds of the exports from all Chinese counties.

It is obvious that those who depend on sales in the domestic market are faced by much greater difficulties.

With all the administratively protected large industries and large services, the domestic market is less open for the Chinese farmers, compared with the international one. In order to help the farmers and rural communities in the interior and frontier regions to make faster changes, what China will have to do, other than to give more handouts, is to make a serious effort to knock down the protected monopolies and make its domestic market more competitive.

Email: younuo@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/09/2006 page4)