A Regional Analysis & Planning System (RAPS) - China
Full Review

Reviewed by: Wang Xiaolu, Deputy Director, National Economic Research Institute, China Reform Foundation, PRC
Review posted 12 July 2006
Review No. 81

CD-ROM Information

Content: RAPS-China offers an index system for the PRC’s regional diversity in different dimensions of development at the provincial level. It also provides statistical data that can be used as a tool for analyzing the PRC’s regional diversity.
Publication Date: 13 October 2004
Audience: This CD-ROM is an analytical tool for political decision makers and planners, as well as for researchers and anyone else who is interested in the PRC’s regional diversity.
Producer: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Size: 9.5MB
Price: US$39 single-user/ US$199 multi-user
Manual needed: Not included but it would be helpful to have a manual for the tutorials.
How to order:

Order online.*

*This link takes you outside the ADBI website. Please use the back button to return to ADBI.org.

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Full Review

Content

RAPS-China has two basic functions. Firstly, it offers a ready-made index system showing the ranks of all the PRC’s provinces in terms of six development dimensions, i.e., human development, natural resources, economic development, infrastructure, science and technology, and administrative efficiency. It also shows the ranks of the provinces in the integrated regional development index which is a combination of the six dimensional indices.

Secondly, it is also a tool for researchers to construct different indices for different purposes by choosing alternative indicators or adding new variables into the database. As an analytical tool, it consists of six components:

1. A statistical database with information on the PRC at the provincial level. It includes more than 300 indicators, covering a wide range of development dimensions. Data was collected from various statistical yearbooks, reports, and other publications. Statistical indicators are basically in per capita rates, proportions or absolute numbers.
2.  A data management module for retrieving, sorting, and filtering selected statistical indicators for the 31 provinces of the PRC (excluding Hong Kong, China, Macao, and Taipei,China).
3. A tool for constructing indices. This module allows users to combine indicators into thematic indices. Users can construct up to six thematic indices in one session. For each index users can select several indicators from the 300 in the database. The selected indicators for an index can have weights assigned individually. It is also possible to combine the various indices into one "composite index," which is a weighted average of up to six thematic indices (weights can be assigned to each included index).
4. An output table module. All results are displayed in one output table, which includes the results of the index calculations for up to six thematic indices and one "composite index". All indices (and the associated ranking of the provinces) can be easily sorted and filtered for specific regions. Users can copy and paste this table into spreadsheet or word processing applications.
5. Visualization modules. All results can be visualized in thematic maps. These are synchronized bar charts showing distributions of two variables or index values, which display profiles of indicators for any two provinces for comparison, and scatter plots for analyzing relationships between variable or index values. All visualizations can be imported into other applications by copy-and-paste techniques.
6. The RAPS-China tool includes utilities for editing the interactive charts and thematic maps, and for printing. An online tutorial for using RAPS is also available.

This CD-ROM is a useful learning tool for policy makers and others who are interested in regional diversities in the PRC by indexing and ranking its provinces in different development dimensions. It is a comprehensive study. It contains a database covering more than 300 variables collected from various Chinese statistical books and other official and non-official sources. It is also a useful tool to analyze regional diversity in the PRC because it allows users to construct new indices by choosing different indicators or adding new variables into the database.

However, the CD-ROM’s use may be restricted by users’ analytical capability. Following the standard process shown in the tutorials, it is not difficult to construct new indices for analytical purposes; however,  doing these analyses correctly requires adept professional knowledge as well as research experience. Without this background, users may not be able to use it except for just looking at the existing ranks and maps.

Meanwhile, one may not expect the CD-ROM to be a powerful professional tool for researchers for the following reasons:

First, by normalizing the data into common units, the analysis only shows ranks for all the provinces and loses useful information on the level of development of a region. This is due to the indices and ranks only containing limited information on development. However, the program does allow users to show the original values of the variables instead of the normalized values which is a good option. Another major limitation is that most of the indicators only have data for one particular year. This makes it is impossible to analyze trends of changes in regional development. The CD-ROM itself, in the current version, does not contain tools for time series analysis.

The makeup of the default indices also merits discussion. First, some of the indices, e.g., the Economic Development Index, mix indicators both by per capita level and by the rate of growth together. It is questionable whether the index represents the relative level of provincial economic development or their growth rates, as these two have different means.

Second, the inclusion of some indicators in the default indices is not clear. For example, one of the indicators that constitute the Index of Administrative Efficiency is "the geographical background of the 29 new provincial leaders appointed between March 2003 and Spring 2004". Users may question why this is related to regional administrative efficiency. Similarly, it is not explicit why "the number of members in the 10th National People’s Congress per million of the population" can indicate administrative efficiencies.

Third, there is room for better classification of the indicators. For instance, one may argue that "the non-agricultural population as a percentage of total population" can be a good indicator for economic development during the period of industrialization but may not be good to measure human development as the way it is currently used. A number of similar questions may be raised elsewhere. It may be that as a result of these possible problems that some provinces ranked abnormally against common sense in some indices. For example, Tibet, commonly know as one of the least developed regions in the PRC, ranked 9th out of the total 31 provinces in terms of economic development.

Fourth, some regional issues that have high importance in the PRC, e.g., income disparity, government corruption, and financial development, are not included. Finally, while most of the data in the database is well documented, some may be incorrectly referenced.

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User-Friendliness and Navigability

The CD-ROM starts immediately upon insertion, and does not require an internet connection. However, it must be noted that when installing the program users will have to modify the resolution settings of their screen to 1024x768 pixels in order to run the program. The instructions on how to do this are given once the CD-ROM has been loaded. It will not run at lower resolutions.

The CD-ROM is generally user-friendly. However, a few problems were noted:

1. Although the tutorials are easy to follow users cannot go back to see more options or to correct mistyping.
2. Unless users spend considerable time familiarizing themselves with the program through the tutorials they may have trouble when trying to do their own analysis by choosing different variables. It would be easier if directions and possible options were clearly indicated at each step while using (not only learning) it.

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Interactivity

The author made good efforts to use maps, bar charts, pies, and X-Y plots to show the outcomes for relative position of provinces in the PRC. However, it would be better if the interactive facilities could be used for analysis on raw data, especially when users choose the default indices.

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Distribution

Order online for US$39. No discounts are available for people in developing countries.

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Sustainability

The current version contains statistical data mostly for the years 2001 or 2002, and some are for the 1990s. It is preferable for users to have updated versions in the future so that new developments in regions can be traced.

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