Author: Yit-Hung Kenny Lau
AIT Library Call Number: AIT Thesis no. HS-89-30
Year: 1989
Academic Program: Human Settlement (HS)
Type: Thesis (M.Sc.) – Asian Institute of Technology, 1982
Examination Committee: Hans Detlef Kammeier (Chairperson); Raymon W. Archer, Richard W. A. Vokes (Examination Committee Members)
Abstract: Market towns have traditionally been the centres of China’s rural economy. Since 1978, their intensified development has been emphasized as an essential component of accelerated rural development, through the diversification of the rural economy and the provision of improved services to the rural population. The study, of an exploratory nature, aims to study existing rural and spatial development policies in China, and their implications for the direction of development and the functions expected to be performed by small market towns in the modernization process. Possible problematic areas in the planning and development of the small towns are also identified and discussed, focussing on the situation in Guangdong, a fast developing province in southern China. It is found that small towns are considered linchpins of future rural surplus rural development, serving to organize the rural commodity economy and to absorb labour through promoting non-agricultural employment. Nevertheless, adequate planning organization, manpower, legislation, and town development planning are generally seriously lacking. Some suggestions for planning consideration are consequently offered, including the creation of organizationally distinct town planning and administration authorities, strengthening the scope and enforcement of legislation pertaining to land development, and the compilation of comprehensive provision standards of facilities and services in order to facilitate resource planning and monitoring activities.
Scholarship Donor(s): Mr. John L. Marden
Note: A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
Advisory: Full-text is available at https://library.ait.ac.th/ (accessible to local ip address only)
