BOOK REVIEWS – Per Ronnas (editor), Rural Industries in Post-Reform China – An inquiry into their characteristics

Eleven papers cover a variety of current topics in rural industrialization in the post reforms China. The basic objective of the book is_to provide an understanding of the process of rural industrialization in China during the post-reform period (after 1978) and to draw out lessons for developing countries of Asia from the experience of rapid growth of rural industries during the 1980’s. All the eleven papers are based on extensive enterprise surveys undertaken in the provinces of Sichuan and Zhejiang in the early 1991. Chapters one -and two provide the reader with the history of the evolution of China’s rural industrialization process which acquaint the reader with an analytical overview of the pattern and the specific features of the same. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the ownership patterns and location, and the age structure of the enterprises_ They report the main findings from the survey carried out in the firms of the counties in Sichuan and Zhejiang provinces during the year 1989. The central focus is on the relationship between different emerging forms of ownership and the extent and nature of enterprise level adjustments. The collective and non-collective enterprises are discussed in detail. As expected non-collective enterprises are smaller than the collective ones.