Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan
yesterday urged local governments in the country's western region
to make "breakthroughs" in infrastructure construction and
environmental projects by 2010.
Construction of energy,
communications and water conservancy projects will be prioritized,
Zeng announced at the opening of the Western Forum of China 2004 in
the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The vice-premier said such
projects would lay solid foundations for the further development of
the region, which occupies over 70 percent of China's territory and
is inhabited by 367 million people.
The region's fragile
ecosystem will be greatly improved by that time thanks to the
country's efforts to increase grain production and a host of
environmental projects, said Zeng.
"A sound infrastructure
and environment are not just in the interests of our generation but
also of the generations to come," Zeng told the forum, which brings
together over 300 representatives from China and abroad, including
top government officials, foreign diplomats, business people from
western China, overseas investors and economists.
He urged local governments
and enterprises to excel in the infrastructure projects which are
under way. Meanwhile, planning authorities should conduct
feasibility studies and try to come up with new suggestions for
projects to be included in the upcoming 11th Five-Year Plan
(2006-10).
Western development has been hampered by problems including water
shortages, poor education and public health facilities and a skills
shortage.
However, the region has
witnessed impressive progress since the central government launched
the western development strategy in 1999, especially in the fields
of infrastructure and environmental protection.
A total of 850 billion
yuan (US$100 billion), of which 400 billion yuan (US$49 billion)
came from the central government, was earmarked for water
conservation, communications, environmental protection, compulsory
education and healthcare over the past five years.
Although ecological and
infrastructural progress has been made in the region, it continues
to lag behind in terms of technology, education, and in financial
and consultancy services.
These are all obstacles
preventing capital inflow, said Wang Chunzheng, vice-minister of
the National Development and Reform Commission.
"Far away from the coast,
investments to inland western areas will cost more in terms of
transportation, what's more, the region is facing a market with
fiercer competition, which the east usually benefits more from," he
said.
He promised long-term and
stable financial support for the region, granting more preferential
tax rates and flexible policies to encourage non-governmental
investment.
Meanwhile, the government
remains challenged by pressing problems such as improving farmer's
lives, ensuring nine-year compulsory education for children and
improving public health facilities in rural areas, said the
vice-premier.
The gap between the east
and west continues to grow. Statistics show per capita gross
domestic product in the west is currently less than half that of
the east, and if it grows at an annual rate of 8 percent, the
western region will take at least 11 years to catch up.
Zeng was echoed by UN
Resident Co-ordinator in China Khalid Malik, who added that the
western development strategy should be people-oriented.
He said the strengthened
efforts to eliminate poverty were in line with the UN's Millennium
Development Goals and more governmental investments in education
and healthcare are badly needed.
By the end of last year,
China's poverty-stricken population, most of whom live in western
China, was thought to be 29 million, down from 250 million before
the reform and opening drive started in 1978. But the previous
decade has seen a slow-down in the pace of poverty reduction in
China.
(China Daily
November 19, 2004)