ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of economic reform in 1979, China has set up many economic development zones and opened up numerous cities for foreign investment. At the same time, trying to provide incentives to promote regional economic development, local governments in coastal areas have been granted certain administrative powers in land-use conversion. With regard to industrial land use and development mechanisms in these fast industrializing regions of China, we observe that there are different institutional arrangement of land-use system in Dongguan and Suzhou. Such variations between different areas serve as the point of departure for this research undertaking.1
