Theoretical application of growth pole theory

Although Peru's growth pole theory is different from regional growth pole theory, it is reasonable to apply its thought to regional development. The economic relationship in the growth pole theory is based on the abstract economic spatial structure, but any activity must rely on certain natural entities. It cannot be said that the growth pole theory is aimed at regional development, but it can be considered that the growth pole theory is the guiding ideology of regional development. In practice, the growth pole theory is based on unbalanced development. The core of its application in regional economic development refers to the concentration of capital and technology due to the concentration of some leading industries or innovative large enterprises in the core area or big cities, which is easy to form economies of scale and related external economy, thus having a strong diffusion effect on the surrounding areas through its rapid growth pole and driving the development of the surrounding areas. The essence of this theory is an intra-regional development theory, which emphasizes the formation and development of the growth center itself in the region and promotes the regional economic development through the priority growth of the growth pole region.

From the background of the growth pole theory, the formation of the growth pole theory is mainly aimed at areas where economic development has entered the growth stage or maturity stage. The premise of the formation and development of Peru's growth pole is the effective demand of the market, which must be formed under the conditions of developed market economy. In underdeveloped economies, the degree of market economy development is low, the economic operation mechanism is not perfect, and the environmental conditions in backward areas are quite different from those in developed countries. Moreover, backward areas or depressed areas generally lack the ability to develop commodity markets and new products, so new enterprises cannot develop in the fierce market competition.

After the growth pole theory was put forward, it was used by many countries to solve different regional development and planning problems. Since 1970s, the growth pole theory has been widely used in the economic development of underdeveloped economies and regions, and has become an important tool to guide economic development. Many countries try to use this theory to eliminate poverty in backward areas and promote the coordinated development of regional economies. In some developed countries and underdeveloped areas, it has also received certain results. Among them, Brazil and Malaysia have achieved great success.

Application of (1) in Brazil

As far as Brazil is concerned, during the period of economic development in the southeast, various incentive measures have been taken to stimulate the economic growth of backward areas such as the Amazon River basin. For example, move the capital from the prosperous Rio de Janeiro to the backward Brasilia, build a highway system running through the Amazon River basin, encourage immigrants to the backward areas, attach importance to the self-development ability of the backward areas, open up new industrial zones, attract foreign investment by using preferential policies, and open up free trade zones in the mainland. With the support of government policies, Manaus Freeport in the middle reaches of the Amazon River has become the largest special economic zone in Brazil and even the world. It is regarded as the growth pole and radiation center to promote the economic development of central and western Brazil, which has effectively promoted the economic development of surrounding areas.

(2) Application in Malaysia

Malaysia used to be one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Before the financial turmoil in Southeast Asia, Malaysia not only experienced rapid economic growth, but also had a stable domestic economy and a fair income distribution among regions.

The successful experience of this country is to encourage export industries and realize industrial upgrading. Most emerging industries are high-tech industries, thus enhancing Malaysia's position in the international division of labor. At the same time, the government put forward a moderate unbalanced development strategy according to the national conditions, which will not harm the economic interests of developed areas, but also make the economy of underdeveloped areas grow rapidly. The eastern part of Malaysia is backward and the western part is more developed, so the country began to adopt a policy close to Peru's growth pole, created an innovative monopoly mechanism, and encouraged growth to be concentrated in specific industries and regions in a certain period of time. However, when the economy developed to a certain extent, Malaysia began to reduce the population flow to prosperous areas such as Selangor, provided that the fundamental interests and economic vitality of prosperous areas were not damaged. However, the government does not encourage private investment to flow to particularly poor areas, but encourages the transfer of talents and funds to moderately developed areas, such as the more developed Palang area. Because these areas have good infrastructure and development potential, their economic expansion is large enough to overcome the adverse echo effect brought by developed areas. By investing in Palang area, the government provides preferential policies for the establishment of the growth pole in northwest China, which has a diffusion effect. In this way, those relatively poor and stagnant areas have gradually developed into rich areas, especially the government's support for innovative industries such as high-tech electronics, which has driven many enterprises to constantly imitate and innovate, making Palang and its surrounding areas develop into a world-wide electronic product export base. At the same time, the Malaysian government encourages the development of poor small and medium-sized cities across the country.

Malaysia's economic development policy is based on the growth pole theory, and the policies adopted are in line with its own national conditions, which not only give full play to the diffusion effect of the growth pole, but also strive to overcome its adverse echo effect; Both the regional priority development strategy and the development of backward areas are taken into account, thus solving the problems of regional development gap and regional income gap.

The successful experience of these two countries shows that the growth pole theory should be combined with their specific national conditions. At the same time, the government needs to take correct actions. The government should adopt appropriate intervention policies and formulate reasonable policy plans for developing backward areas in order to promote the economic development of backward areas and the whole country.

However, some countries use the growth pole theory as the basis for formulating regional development strategies, hoping to achieve economic growth, but the results are not ideal. Such as France, Italy, Spain, Canada and other countries have encountered this problem. Italy and Spain used to form several "industrial development zones" and "industrialization cores" with reference to the growth pole theory. However, due to ignoring the role of agriculture and small and medium-sized enterprises, being divorced from local resources and relying heavily on foreign resources, they could not effectively absorb local labor and failed to promote local economic growth. These growth poles are called "enclaves embedded in backward areas".