A study on the selection of industries and location of FDI in Sichuan Province
四川省FDI区位选择的特征与机理

This paper pays attention to the time-space evolution of FDI in Sichuan Province from 1991 to 2005. Based on the panel data of enterprises' numbers of all kinds of foreign investment in Sichuan Province in 1991, 1996, 2000 and 2005, the research shows that the industries in which the foreign enterprises invested are gradually expanding in this period, such as electricity, transportation, warehousing and telecommunications industry, wholesale and retail trade, real estate, tourism, mining industry in 2000, and remained unchanged from 2000 to 2005. However, investment focuses on the manufacturing industry. As to the spatial structure, the general spatial distribution is convergent notably from 1991 to 2005. But there are micro-scale changes in different periods of time. In the early 1990s, the 6 inner districts of Chengdu are the main ones in which the foreign capital invested, in addition to the suburban counties of Chengdu, Deyang and Mianyang are not prior areas, and other areas like Nanchong, Guangyuan at Leshan are the main ones. But in the mid-1990s, the foreign capital invested to key areas shows a spatial distribution pattern oriented to the Baoji-Chengdu,Chengdu-Chongqing and Chengdu-Kunming railways. And then, foreign entrepreneurs give first priority to Chengdu, Mianyang, Deyang and Leshan in the end of the 1990s. In the early 21st century, there are only three prior areas including Chengdu, Deyang, and Mianyang. And there is a notable trend that industries in foreign capital invested enterprises agglomerate in inner districts of Chengdu including manufacturing, construction,agriculture,and all of the other tertiary industries except tourism. Besides, lots of FDI enterprises of manufacturing, agriculture, whole-sale and retail, real estate gather in the suburban districts of Chengdu, particularly, the amount of manufacturing enterprises increases steadily. But anyway, Mianyang, Deyang and Leshan are the important areas FDI entrepreneurs pay attention to, especially manufacturing and whole-sale and retail in Mianyang, manufacturing in Deyang, tourism in Leshan, but less FDI in other areas in any industry. The striking convergence of "Chengdu-oriented" of FDI in this period shows a polarization effect in the process of economic development in Sichuan Province. As a growth pole, Chengdu gets more favorable and effective policy supports from the higher authorization of Sichuan Province in competing with Chongqing since 1997, therefore, lots of fund has been invested in infrastructure construction, such as highways. On the other hand, Chengdu is the most developed area both in economic and social services. Besides, there are lots of excellent managers, R&;D personnel and skilled hands, and a great potential market. All of the above are attractive to all kinds of FDI enterprises. In addition, the FDI invested enterprises demonstrate their development to the following ones and give them hopeful actuation effect.