What should a government do for a city’s economy? I think there is no absolute answer for such a question as different cities have different needs and it also depends on what the government’s objective is. However, I think there are few things that all government should consider and do when developing a city’s economy. The first thing that the government should do is to figure out the city’s condition and come up with the plan that suits the city’s need. As I have mentioned, different cities have different needs and condition, there is no one plan that would meet the needs of cities around the world. Thus, it is essential for a government to know the strengths of the city. For example, to find out one’s geographical characteristics and advantages. After that, make good use of the advantages to develop the economy. Let’s take Hong Kong as an example, there is Victoria Harbor which encourages trading business in Hong Kong as this geographical advantage has been attracting a lot of investors and businessman to come and trade. I believe this advantage has undoubtedly contributed a lot to the early success in Hong Kong’s economy. Therefore, in order to develop a city’s economy, the first thing a government should do is to determine one’s condition and advantages then develop economy with the aid of them. Moreover, I think a government should understand the disadvantage of a city’s economy and try to deal with it. For instance, in Hong Kong, its economy relies too much on real estate and the other industries like cultural and creative industry are neglected. It is quite dangerous for a city to rely too much on only one kind of industry because when that particular industry collapses, the economy will collapse as well. In order to sustain a healthy economic development, the government should encourage other potential industries so as to raise Hong Kong’s competitiveness. Therefore, the first move of a government is to understand a city’s condition before developing its economy. Another thing that a government should do is to get a balance between economic development and environmental preservation so as to achieve sustainable development. Undeniably, a better economic development means better living standard as the government can get more revenue like from the profit tax and then redistributed those back to the public by improving social welfare and infrastructure. Nevertheless, the protection of environment is also crucial for a city and thus no city should develop economy at the expense of environment. It is because a good environment not only enhance people’s living standard like decreasing the rate of respiratory diseases when there is less air pollution, but also help economic development in a city. Since better environment like less pollution can attract more tourists as well as talented foreign labours and investors to come, more job opportunity can be created and the competitiveness of a city will be increased. If a city only concerns about economic development and never put efforts on handling environmental problems caused by development, the environmental problems will be worsened or even will come to a stage that it’s too late to tackle. At that time, foreign capital and labours will no longer be attracted and the resources or environment may not meet the needs of the future generation anymore. Eventually, the economy of that city will go down. Thus, the government should balance economic development and environment protection as it is the way to achieve sustainable development of a city. The most vital thing that a government should do for a city’s economy is to maintain a well-establish legal system. Actually, a well-established legal is really crucial for a city’s economy because it can avoid corruption that maintain a favourable condition for a city’s economy to develop. When there is corruption in a city, fair trade is impossible and this unfair condition will discourage citizen to start their businesses or even stop foreign capital and labours. This undoubtedly damages a city’s economic development. With good legal system with laws to hinder corruption and any other unfair economic activity, the government can create a more favourable place to develop economy. Most importantly, good legal system can deter crimes and maintain social stability which also help to encourage investment in that place. In particular, some Africa countries have no well-established legal system which leads to many crimes and disputes that stop the countries to develop economy and thus they remain poor and backward. Thus, the government should maintain good legal system for economy. All in all, there is no definite method that a government should do for its economy as it depends on each country’s condition. However, the government can consider the above things before developing an economy as they help maintain economic development.(1265)
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 09:27:17 +0000