A Beijing Normal University research report on provincial governments' efficiency found that most rich provinces in eastern China did better than their counterparts in the west, says an article in 21st Century Business Herald. Excerpts:

Local governments play important roles in promoting economic growth and social development. The developed provinces have more mature markets than the less-developed provinces, so their governments rely on taxes for revenues and clearly know the boundaries between governments and markets.

But governments of poor places tend to play dominant roles in stimulating local economic growth because the market economy is not fully developed yet.

So a strong market is always accompanied by an efficient government and vice versa. The governments in less developed areas should learn lessons from the report and reduce their interference with the market and try their best to promote growing healthy market economies, otherwise they will be trapped in a vicious cycle. The harder they try to stimulate local economies, the more slowly the economic growth becomes, especially in the long run.

Governments should let economic factors flow freely and help to create an environment for fair market competition and ensure relevant laws and regulations are implemented to protect the legal interests and properties of enterprises and individuals.

It is more urgent for governments of the backward regions to transform their functions and become providers of public service and products, not a "general manager" in charge of every aspect social and economic activity.