On Tuesday, Premier Wen
Jiabao unveiled this year's four major tasks for reinvigorating
the industrial rustbelts, promising more efforts to restructure
state firms, promote the private sector, optimize the industrial
mix, and absorb more domestic and overseas investment.
Addressing the first plenary session of the central government's
Leading Group for Revitalizing the Northeast and Other Old
Industrial Bases, the premier said those areas should speed up
institutional innovation and reform, the main road to their
revitalization.
The premier explained that reform of the state-owned assets
management system and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) must be
deepened to increase their economic vitality, and efforts should be
made to promote the mixed ownership and private sectors of the
economy.
Wen, also head of the group, described optimizing and
technological upgrading of the existing industrial mix as the main
task to revitalize the once-influential industrial bases.
The old industrial bases should continue to develop those
sectors that are well-adapted pillar industries, and strive to
advance modern agriculture and consolidate a position as major
grain producers and suppliers, said the premier.
He said the old industrial bases should continue to open their
economies to other parts of the country and world.
Wen also called on governments in those areas to expand
employment and provide better social security coverage.
It is essential to transform the mode of economic growth and
prevent blind investment and duplication of construction projects
involving low-level technologies, he said.
Among those attending the session were leading members of the
group, including Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, and top officials from
Liaoning,
Jilin
and Heilongjiang
provinces. The three provinces make up China's northeast
region.
China's strategy is to reinvigorate the traditional industrial
centers in the northeast provinces and other parts of the country
in a bid to turn rustbelts into modern industrial zones, making
them new and important growth areas of the national economy.
China considers the revival of the northeast industrial base as
its third most important long-term strategy, following the opening
of the southeast 20 years ago and the western development policy
five years ago.
The northeast region played a major role in modern China's
industrial development. It produced the first batches of steel,
machine tools, locomotives and planes after the founding of the
People's Republic in 1949, and still has potential in these
fields.
The central government launched 150 state-level key heavy
industry projects during the first several years after the founding
of the PRC, one-third of which were built in this region. These
projects were in the iron and steel, chemicals, heavy machinery,
automobiles and defense industries.
However, many of the traditional industrial enterprises that
were established in the 1950s, when China operated under a planned
economic system, have become less competitive. Some have been
losing money for the past 20 years, during the time in which China
implemented the reform and opening policies and moved from a
planned economy toward a market economy.
The proportion of the region's industrial output value to the
national total dropped to 9 percent from the former 17 percent.
Some loss-making SOEs were closed, resulting in mass
unemployment.
Premier Wen said last year that China aims to build the
northeast region into a national and even a world-class industrial
base for equipment manufacturing and important raw materials.
(People's Daily March 24, 2004)