中国经济特区研究（2010年第1期 总第3期）

Ma Yue，a professor，is now a PhD supervisor and the dean of economics department of Lingnan University.He got his doctor of Economics from University of Manchester in UK.He once served as a PhD supervisor for life and a visiting professor in Economics department of Stirling University in the United Kingdom.He worked as a researcher in Financial Research Institute of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and a special Chinese expert for the European Central Bank.Besides being a special scholar for the training of public servants in Hong Kong and an invited expert of Hong Kong Phoenix TV station，he was also a visiting professor of Xiamen University，university of International Business and Economics of and Ling Nan College of Sun Yat-Sen University.

As we all know，the development of China’s SEZs mainly depended upon policies in the past but now upon market.In the final analysis，market relies on talents that are the resources for market development.In the early days，SEZs depended upon policies to attract foreign investment，which is the starting force for economic development.With capital available，SEZs cannot always count on the special policies offered by the Central Government，because it is not healthy and scientific if SEZs always do so.Finally，SEZs should develop themselves by market competition.Compared with non-SEZs，SEZs can develop their economy well because they can attract the talents from the whole China and even the world to serve them，which is the great difference between the past and the present of SEZs.For example，in the past，there were no good schools with worse welfare treatment than now，for the objective conditions couldn’t permit.With the increase of financial income and the improvement of national income，we are supposed to allocate some capital to attract talents.High-quality talents enjoy build-up effect，for example，if you recruit an excellent teacher，excellent students will come because of the teacher’s fame.The recruitment of one talent will enable other talents to follow because of the establishment of cooperative relations，which very much resembles the “locomotive” effect.The demonstrative role enables people to know that SEZs attach great importance to talents and attract the attention of those from home and abroad，and then more and more talents will come to SEZs，forming a benign circle.There must be something for the real talents to do.They are very smart and eager to make money.What does making money mean？It means that they want to search the opportunity to make contribution to the society.The more money they make，the more contribution they will make to the society and the faster the economic development will be.This means we depend upon talents rather than the government’s policies to promote economic development，as a result，economy will achieve rapid growth.Just like the USA，the reason for the economic development is that the USA can attract the talents from all over the world.How to attract talents？The government of the USA depends upon various kinds of mechanisms，such as the immigrant mechanism.As a matter of fact，Shenzhen does the same thing，such as the innovation of the household registration system.If you don’t have a job，Shenzhen can offer you a temporary residence permit to give you the opportunity to land a job. And then Shenzhen welcomes you to stay and to make contributions.This practice is very good and should be encouraged.In this way，everybody units together，exerts his own ability and tries hard.The time when you are under the greatest stress enjoys the highest creative power，with which the Central Government’s policies and local planning cannot make comparison.

The development of China’s SEZs makes positive contribution to that of the experimental economics theory，which is very popular now.As a matter of fact，the establishment of China’s SEZs，as one of the experimental economies，is world-leading and innovative.Why？Because you can do experiments in the lab and you are permitted to fail，however，the social policies need to avoid failure and even don’t permit failure.If you do experiments of economic and talent policies in SEZs and your experiments turn out to be wrong，people will know it is just an experiment，not affecting the whole China.If they prove to be correct，such policies and systems will be popularized and become more mature.If one can summarize the experience of the development of SEZs，I think it will contribute a lot to the experimental economics and transition economics. From the transition from the planned economy to market-oriented economy，SEZs make significant contribution in the aspect of taking the first step，discovering the effective way for the process of transition and to avoid the negative effect on the society，and enabling reform to be faster and smoother.

The development mode of SEZs can be reproduced.If you can make a summary，many countries will learn from Shenzhen.The reproducibility of the mechanism and system of Shenzhen doesn’t mean the blind indiscriminate imitation.The reproducibility must be innovative and adaptable，including legal and political system.Under the premise of innovation and adaptability，it is possible to conduct reproducibility.

Market plays a very important role in the process of the development of China’s SEZs，because our goal is to realize the transition from the planned economy to market-oriented economy.The practice has proved that it is the government’s limited plans，ideas，mapped-out policies，human resources，knowledge，and ability to settle the asymmetric information that cannot solve the problems which the market can in the planned economy.So it is the case the industry upgrading and market should be with the mechanism of entry and exit.Entry means that if market has demand，investors can enter the market；exit means that if the investors fail，there must be the mechanism of exit to enable them to go bankrupt，resell，auction or be acquired by other more effective investors.The above mentioned plays the most direct and the greatest role in promoting industry upgrading.Without the mechanism of “entry”，investors under the protection of government won’t be under stress and willing to innovate.Without the mechanism of “exit”，under the annual subsidy of the government，the investors won’t be driven to innovate their products to upgrade industry even if their enterprises suffer from loss annually.Thus，the mechanism of entry and exit plays an essential role in industry upgrading.The government must be clear that it should not only pay attention to social stability and employment，but also the stress to upgrade industry.There must be the stress from market，and we need to fully play the market.Absolutely，the government，under its control，can realize stable development without large-scale entry and exit，which result in social turbulence.The government can implement some restrictive measures，such as auction，to maintain the stability and order of the market system，if a financial crisis takes place，and a new market is just established when a great number of investors want to enter or exit blindly.There must be the mechanism of entry and exit；otherwise，the industry cannot be upgraded.The government cannot guide the industry to upgrade，which doesn’t conform to the law of market economy，because the government officials are not experts，and even they were experts，they cannot catch up with the rapid-changing development of science and technology and knowledge explosion etc.if their posts get changed.Hence，the industry upgrading should depend upon talents and entrepreneurs and be based on market，and the government just needs to provide order and fair competition，which is a benign circle.If market goes wrong，such as the panic in the financial crisis and the blind investment in the economic bubble，the government needs to intervene，otherwise，it should permit normal entry and exit.

In my opinion，the existence of China’s SEZs must exert far-reaching significance.For example，the experimental economics mentioned above should be conducted with pilot test in SEZs before it is implemented in the whole country.In essence，the “product and industry updating” foremost need “policy and system updating”，which can bring product innovation and industry upgrading.We can see that what is behind the industry updating of the USA and other developed countries is policy and system updating.The government of SEZs enjoys advantages in doing so.The traditional comparative advantage is that of the product and cost of labor.As a matter of fact，in modern economics，the contribution of SEZs lies in that they smartly exert the generalized comparative advantage in system and policy.The government of SEZs needs to create and strengthen such comparative advantage and avoid comparative disadvantage.In this way，the vitality of SEZs will last with more specialty and consistency，which doesn’t only mean the lasting vitality and is of great significance to the development of SEZs.SEZs must be the bellwethers and locomotives.Apart from economy，SEZs must be at least leading in policy and system in the whole country.What’s more，SEZs can attract talents，who will in return promote the development of policy and system，forming a benign circle.

With the successful development of SEZs，their scales become larger and larger and they mean more and more important to the development of the whole country.In this way，during the process of policy and system innovation，SEZs will be faced with higher and higher cost and risk.What should SEZs do to reduce such restrictions？We need to subdivide SEZs，such as the SEZ of SEZs.We cannot carry out one policy in such a large SEZ.Maybe we need to implement the policy in one industry or some enterprises.Due to the high cost of failure，we need to reduce scale or maintain the original scale to avoid risks.If the present industrial scale is larger than the past，it shouldn’t be too large.Thus，we need to choose a community or industry to conduct pilot test，and then carry the policy out in the whole city，country and then overseas countries.In this way，we can avoid fault.There must be something more that we can do.

Compared with other cities，SEZs are the best places to conduct pilot test for new systems and policies，because other cities don’t have comparative advantage but comparative disadvantage.The reason is the environment of SEZs.From the Central Government，to provinces，cities，enterprises and talents，everybody has been prepared to do experiments and face challenges.Other cities don’t have the same system，talents and resources as SEZs，which is the comparative advantage of SEZs.As a result，the successful chances to do pilot test for new policy and system in SEZs are higher than other cities，which is also determined by the mission of SEZs.

In my view，the main problem that SEZs face is that the comparative advantage in system and policy is gradually getting reduced，because other provinces and cities catch up with SEZs after they have learned their policies and systems，which bridges the gap between SEZs and other places in the aspect of economy，system and policy.I think this is the main challenge and crisis.SEZs should realize this point，and the urgent mission and far-reaching meaning of the moment is to strengthen the innovative ability of the leaders.Entrepreneurs are responsible for the innovation of enterprises，while the innovative ability of enterprises is determined by the environment provided by SEZs.The most important mission of the leaders of SEZs is to innovate system and attract talents in order to constantly input new blood into SEZs and let new ideas burst out.The leaders must clearly realize the role of the government of SEZs，which provide environment for innovation，use innovative system and policy to provide such environment to attract the constant inflow of talents and cultivate their own new talents.The new talents had better enjoy the experience of other places in China and introduce the overseas experience to SEZs.In reality，that many talents leave SEZs doesn’t mean they leave SEZs forever.Instead，they go to other places in China to for more experience or the foreign countries for overseas experience，and then they will come back.In this way，they not only know the development of China but also that of overseas countries，which can avoid the aging of systems and the stagnation of innovations. And then the development of SEZs will be relatively smooth.For this purpose，the Department of Economics of Hong Kong Lingnan University is very pleased to cooperation with the government of SEZs and universities to make due contribution to the economic development of China.

Finally，I wish China’s SEZs a happy birthday and to be young forever.