MARKET POTENTIAL AND EXPLOITATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN WEST CHINA
研究交通成本与市场规模对中国西部市场可达性和自然资源开发的影响，发现降低交通成本对提升市场可达性作用有限，而扩大本地市场规模更为关键。
Market Potential is an indicator of market accessibility of manufacturing in a region, in which transportation cost and market scale play an important role. This paper focuses upon the effects of transportation cost and market scale on market accessibility and natural resources exploitation in the West China. In China, Market Potential Index (MPI) degrades from the coast areas to inland areas. The western part with plentiful natural resources can not attract effectively manufacturing because of the bad market accessibility, so that the economic development depends mainly on mining and primary products of natural resources. In recent years, with the implementation of the strategy of west development, infrastructure of transportation in the west part has got improved. However manufacturing sectors still tend to converge in the coast areas continuously. This paper simulated how transportation cost down and enlargement of market scale affect market accessibility in the western part. The simulation results show that MPI in most regions of the west part will go up if transportation cost decline. However the improvement of market accessibility with decline in transportation cost is quite limited. It implies that it is limited to improve market accessibility through reducing transportation cost in future. Market scale is more important factor which results in regional disparity of market accessibility. Narrow local market scale of the western part restricts improvement in market accessibility. It is believed that to promote natural resource exploitation of the western part needs to pay much attention and efforts to enlargement of its local market scale.