ABSTRACT
China's huge land mass has given rise to differing levels of development across the country. Inter-regional industrial transfer (IRIT) is crucial to enhancing the industrial and economic competitiveness of China's central and western regions. According to United Nations Industrial Development Organization's estimations, transportation costs for road and airfreight for the inland western region are twice as high as those in eastern region, taking a big chip off the gains derived from cheap labor costs. It is reported that cost of goods manufactured in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh might be even lower than that for similar goods produced in China's inland region. The Coastal Inland region and Eastern Central Western region are the two most conventional bases for drawing regional comparison studies of China. In this background brief, inter-regional industrial transfer within China is a term referring to labor-intensive industrial sectors relocated from the coastal region to inland regions, or from the eastern region to the central and western regions.
