Peri-urbanization in the Chengdu extended urban region is the subject of this discussion paper. Characteristics of peri-urbanization processes in East Asia in general, and China in particular, have been described in previous outputs of the Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) and Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resource Research (IGSNRR) research team. In a nutshell, peri-urbanization refers to the dynamic process of physical and socioeconomic change beyond the contiguously built-up areas of large cities. In East Asia, the process is usually driven by investment (foreign and domestic) in manufacturing. Development in the Chengdu peri-urban region (and in Chongqing) has taken a very different route to date than in coastal China, the subject of previous research by our Urban Dynamics of East Asia Project.

The Chengdu region, in the past, has been shaped to a greater extent by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and explicit national spatial policy than has the coastal region. It has been significantly influenced by the "Third Line" development program, which Mao Zedong initiated in the 1960s to protect industries strategic to national defense by locating them in interior western China. Starting in the late 1970s, the movement of "Third Line" firms from extremely remote locations to more central locations drove the development of the ring of peri-urban satellite cities around Chengdu. Unlike other western Chinese cities, the Chengdu peri-urban region was the location of considerable Township and Village Enterprise (TVE) development for a twenty-year period, also beginning in the late 1970s. However, over time, market forces have become the dominant force shaping the development of Chengdu, not unlike coastal cities, albeit with a lag effect.

In 2005, India will implement new intellectual property (IP) laws that recognize product patents on pharmaceuticals. Because India's 1970 Patent Act only recognizes process patents, Indian drug companies have been free to copy molecules from multinational companies (MNCs), to sell within India and other nonpatent conforming markets. New laws, such as the Exclusive Marketing Rights amendment to the 1970 Patent Act (ratified on April 19, 1999), will substantially alter this practice. This paper discusses what companies are doing to prepare for 2005 and beyond. As is the case today, Indian and MNCs alike will figure prominently in the future of the pharmaceutical sector, albeit in somewhat altered form. Although the new patent regime has the potential to reward MNCs at the expense of Indian firms, local companies will likely benefit from stricter laws. In fact, it is plausible that the 2005 laws will vault some Indian pharmaceutical companies into globally prominent positions.

Preface by Henry S. Rowen and Naushad Forbes.