That question came to mind during my fifth visit to China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region this year. Three decades of cooperation between Fujian Province and Ningxia offer a compelling lesson: development is sustainable when assistance evolves into partnership and regional differences become complementary strengths.
I first visited Ningxia in 2021, when the Fujian-Ningxia partnership marked its 25th anniversary. Returning five years later, I was struck by how far the relationship had moved beyond poverty relief. Its greatest achievement is not the roads, buildings, or industrial parks created along the way. It is the opportunities and capabilities built for people who once faced severe geographical and economic disadvantages.
The partnership began in 1996 under China's coordinated regional development strategy, linking prosperous coastal Fujian with landlocked Ningxia in north-western China. Their geography and economic conditions differed greatly. Yet instead of allowing those differences to become barriers, the two regions made them the foundation of cooperation.
The results are substantial. Over 30 years, Fujian has provided 7.68 billion yuan in assistance to Ningxia. More than 4,100 cooperation projects have benefited 2.44 million people. Over 160 demonstration villages and 423 resettlement communities have been established. Around 450,000 people have escaped poverty, while about 840,000 have been relocated from environmentally fragile areas.
The core lesson is clear: poverty reduction is only the beginning.
Fujian brought capital, technology, management expertise and market connections. Ningxia offered land, resources and investment opportunities. Cooperation shifted from aid to economic partnership.
The two sides have jointly established 12 industrial parks, involving nearly 400 enterprises and generating annual output of about 35 billion yuan. Nearly 6,000 Fujian-based enterprises have established businesses in Ningxia. This shows how development assistance can evolve into a self-sustaining economic ecosystem that creates jobs, attracts investment, and strengthens local industries.
Human capital has been equally important. By September 2025, 55,000 Ningxia workers had received training at Ningxia Sanjiang Technical School and gained opportunities for long-term employment in Fujian. E-commerce training has created new opportunities, particularly for women.
This matters because people are not simply recipients of development. They are its most valuable infrastructure. Skills travel, knowledge multiplies, and entrepreneurs create jobs for others.
Technology has rewritten Ningxia's geographical limitations. Far from the sea and surrounded by desert, the region now produces marine fish. In 2022, universities and institutions from Fujian and Ningxia cultivated yellow croaker in saline-alkaline ponds replicating marine conditions. Ningxia now produces more than 2,000 tonnes of seafood annually.
The message is powerful: development does not always require eliminating geographical disadvantages. Innovation can change what those disadvantages mean.
JunCao technology offers another example. Developed by Professor Lin Zhanxi of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, it has helped more than 17,500 households in Ningxia's Xihai Gu region escape poverty over a decade.
The lesson is not simply "transfer technology." It is "adapt technology." Solutions become sustainable when they fit local conditions, resources and needs.
The same principle applies to education and healthcare. Over three decades, Fujian has sent more than 7,000 professionals and technical experts to Ningxia. Healthcare cooperation has helped standardise 65 clinical procedures, while Ningxia doctors have received advanced training in Fujian.
Such investments outlast physical infrastructure. Machines eventually become obsolete; knowledge and skills keep creating value.
Ningxia's economic transformation illustrates the broader change. Its per capita GDP increased from 3,926 yuan in 1996 to 77,981 yuan in 2025, nearly 19 times higher. The region's economy expanded 33-fold, and rural residents' per capita disposable income rose 22-fold.
Ningxia's progress, of course, cannot be attributed to one partnership. National policies, infrastructure investment, industrialisation and urbanisation all mattered. But the Fujian-Ningxia mechanism helped connect capital, technology, knowledge, people and markets across regions.
That is where Bangladesh should pay close attention.
Bangladesh has achieved impressive national economic progress, but regional opportunities remain unevenly distributed. Dhaka and a few major cities continue to dominate investment, industry, technology, and skilled employment. Regional inequality will not disappear through larger central allocations alone. Bangladesh needs stronger local economic capabilities in every region.
One practical idea is to establish "twin district partnerships" between stronger and less-developed districts in Bangladesh. These partnerships could focus on technology transfer, skills training, entrepreneurship, management expertise, and market access.
Second, Bangladesh needs region-specific development strategies. Coastal districts can build on fisheries and the blue economy. Northern districts can focus on agriculture and agro-processing. Haor areas can develop water-based economic activities. Hill districts can pursue sustainable tourism and agriculture. No region in Bangladesh should follow the same development model.
Third, skills must be central to regional development. Technical education, digital skills, e-commerce, modern agriculture, healthcare and industrial management should be treated as investments, not costs. Universities should work with industries and local governments to solve real regional problems, from salinity and flooding to fisheries, climate change, and digital commerce.
Bangladesh also needs to rethink its development partnerships with China and other international partners. The focus should go beyond infrastructure, loans, and investment to include technology transfer, research cooperation, workforce training, local supplier development and access to international markets.
Most importantly, development in Bangladesh must become more decentralised. Districts should not remain administrative units waiting for decisions and allocations from Dhaka. They should become economic centres built around their strengths, with local government, universities, businesses and communities working together.
The Fujian-Ningxia experience leaves Bangladesh with a simple but profound question: Are we merely distributing resources, or are we building every region's capacity to create its own future?
The answer will determine whether regional development remains dependent or becomes a cycle of opportunity.
Development is not about making every region identical. It is about identifying what each region can do best, connecting it with the resources and knowledge it lacks, and giving its people the capacity to move forward.
That is the real core lesson of Fujian and Ningxia: the strongest development partnership is not the one that creates dependence, but the one that eventually makes dependence unnecessary.
The author, Mohammad Saiyedul Islam, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the School of Overseas Education (School of Foreign Languages), Sanming University, Fujian, China, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Belt and Road Research Centre, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh.