The Cantonese model: Clusters of firms and local industrial development policy in Southern China

Studying first-comers industrialization processes or today’s “new-comers” experiences of industrial development it is clear that firms are not indifferent to geography. This paper illustrates the experience of the Southern China Guangdong Province, where, rather differently from what has been happening in many countries, agglomerations of firms have been extensively encouraged by government interventions. The government has selected several localities within the Province where the agglomeration of specialized companies has been strongly stimulated. In the Cantonese experience, therefore, the firm-clustering process cannot be considered only the aggregate result of single-firm choices but, on the contrary, it has been strongly connected to the local government’s vision and interventions.