Making local authorities compete for industrialization is one of the best aspects of the Chinese model.

These days the news in the papers has been depressing me. One paper says that independent administrative authorities will now be dependent. We can even abolish these authorities, a minister argues. The crisis will not hit Turkey even slightly, they say. What is more, we are planning to manufacture the most beautiful car ever. What can I say? Let us hope for the best. But I do not want to read such news in the papers anymore. I want to read news like what was published in The China Times recently. If you wonder what I am talking about, please read on.

I came across an article by Wu Yiyao in The China Times, a Chinese newspaper in English. According to this, preparations for the industrial zone in Yuhang, Zhejiang, which will host Chinese people who will return from abroad with skills and projects, were in the final stage. Preparations had begun in June 2010 and were now in the implementation process. The objective is to bring back those Chinese who are living abroad who have skills and enable China to make a leap in the value chain. They will provide not only industrial land but also venture capital for the returnees. The project was announced by the Party Committee of Zhejiang. The article involved a 3D plan of the industrial zone. Today, let me draw some conclusions from this story.

First, China initiated the preparations for the industrial zone in June 2010, and now they are ready for implementation. While every other country in the world was in the midst of the crisis, the Chinese were planning their future. They could have gone to meetings and bragged, "The crisis did not hit us." Instead, they planned their future.

The second one is related directly to the experience with industrial zones. China owes its success at industrialization to the industrial park model it developed. Turkey also owes its industrialization to industrial parks. China set off in the 1980s. We set off much earlier, in the 1960s. The sad part of the story is that the latest publication of the World Bank on special economic zones does not have a single example from Turkey, but has many examples from China.

Third, they were aware that the prolonged crisis at the heart of the system was a huge opportunity to transfer skills from the core to the periphery. Turkey has not realized this yet. Some Turks living abroad want to return to home from the Silicon Valley, but Turkey has nothing to offer to them. China has seized the opportunity; Turkey has not. This is the third point to stress.

An innovative step

Fourth, it is not extensive reforms but small wise steps that bring productivity gains and the shift to a high-tech economy. The idea to develop an industrial zone for the Chinese people who will return to the homeland with skills and projects is such a small and innovative step. We are wearing ourselves out demanding education and legal reforms from the administration. They, however, know how to devise the right steps. Entrepreneurs in Turkey are unable to find industrial land at reasonable prices. Every actor, including municipalities, fails to focus on the real issue as they are preoccupied with amassing ill-gotten gains as China, meanwhile, shoots for the moon.

Last, I believe it is particularly meaningful that the plans were announced by the Local Party Committee. Making local authorities compete for industrialization is one of the best aspects of the Chinese model. Turkey has never thought of making development agencies and local administrations compete. Maybe we think that it would be disgraceful. Even if we did and even if these organizations knew now to attempt a competition, they would go at hammer and tongs as there are plenty of them. I want to read news about innovation. But this is Turkey and that is China.

This commentary was published in Radikal on 26.08.2011