建国前,我国生产力地区布局极不合理,77%的工业偏集于国土面积不到12%的东部沿海地区,其中重工业主要集中在东北,轻工业主要集中在上海、天津、广州等少数城市。广大内地特别是边疆少数民族地区几乎没有什么近代工业,面积占国土45%的西北和内蒙地区,工业产值仅占全国3%;面积占国土23%的云、贵、川三省与西藏地区,工业产值仅占全国的6%。这种分布状况,一方面使工业生产与原料、燃料产地和消费区严重脱节,造成原料、燃料和成品的远距离运输;另一方面又使广大内地的丰富资源得不到充分的开发利用,经济发展长期停滞在落后状态,也不利于战略后方基地的建立和巩固。

Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China,our regional distri-bution of productivity was quite unbalanced.At that time,heavy industry wasmainly centralized in the northeast,while light industry in such cities asShanghai,Tianjing,Guangzhou and so on.Over 30 years since liberation,ourcountry invested over half of her capital outlay in inland to accelerate theeconomic development of inland and some minority nationality regions,andchange the unbalanced,backward,lopsided industrial distribution of old Chinapreliminarily.At the same time,we utilized the industry of coastal areas fullyand developed it rationally,played the role of original industrial bases fully,andcarried out its proper reconstruction,extension and new-construction.In any country,whether it be the United states,the Soviet Union,the Statesof the European Economic Community or Japan,the development of the regionaldistribution of their productivity was waved from unbalance to balance.And ittook a long time for them to develop their new economic bases gradually,dependingon their developed old bases of ecomomy.In our socialist construction,we should understand and apply consciouslythe unbalance law of regional economic development and the regional division lawof labour,and arrange for the optimized regional distribution of productivity,based on different natural,economic and technological conditions of various regio-ns.we should handle correctly the relationship between developed regions and un-developed regions,promote and support the economic development of undevelopedregions through developing the economu of developed regions,taking the oldbases of developed regions as foothold anb dase area for undeveloped regions.