A senior cabinet official has said that China will continue to
invest huge sums into its western region over the next five years
to develop it into a magnet for both domestic and overseas
investors.
The money will be used to build up local infrastructure and
improve the environment, said Li Zibin, deputy director of the
Office of the Leading Group for Western Region Development at the
State Council.
"We need an additional five years to turn western China into an
ideal zone for investors from home and abroad," he said.
Li, speaking in an interview with China Daily as the
country enters the fifth year of its "Go West" campaign, said the
next five years are very important to make further improvements in
environmental protection, communications and poverty relief in
western China.
Western China offers rich natural resources and a cheap labor
supply.
Vice Premier Huang Ju
recently said that the western development strategy would remain
one of China's top priorities. During an inspection tour in the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region at the beginning of this month, Huang
urged governments at all levels to continue to speed up economic
and social development there.
China initiated its western development strategy in 1999 to help
the underdeveloped area -- which includes 12 provinces, autonomous
regions and Chongqing Municipality -- catch up with eastern
China.
The western half of the nation's territory is home to one-fourth
of its population and produces about 65 percent of the nation's
total average gross domestic product.
Policies such as high governmental investment, preferential tax
rates and flexibility have gradually paid off, with the average
annual GDP growth rate reaching as high as 10 percent during the
2000–04 period. In 1999 it was just 7.2 percent.
About US$10 billion in foreign direct investment has poured into
the western region during past five years, with such Fortune 500
behemoths as Toyota, Motorola, Shell, BP and General Motors making
their presence felt. A total of 10,000 businesses from China's
eastern and coastal regions have also invested there.
Li said that by 2007, all students in the region should have
access to nine-year compulsory education and about 20 million rural
people living in absolute poverty will have basic food, clothing
and shelter.
The Tibet Autonomous Region is one of the primary beneficiaries
of the Go West campaign.
The central government will invest 6.4 billion yuan (US$773.5
million) this year in 24 key projects in Tibet, according to the
local government. The figure is six times the autonomous region's
annual fiscal budget and about one-third of its annual GDP.
About 5.3 billion yuan (US$640.4 million) will be spent on
pasture construction, rural clean water projects, rural medical
services, education and transportation.
The central government invested 500 million yuan (US$60.4
million) in 1985, the 20th anniversary of the founding of
Tibet Autonomous Region; for the 30th anniversary that figure shot
up to 4.6 billion yuan (US$555.8 million).
(China Daily January 17, 2005)