Official calls for development of Pingtan Island

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Senior leader Wu Bangguo called for further opening-up and faster development of the Pingtan comprehensive experiment zone during his three-day visit to coastal Fujian Province that ended on Wednesday.

Wu Bangguo (R), chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, visits ANTA Limited, a sportswear company, in Jinjiang City, southeast China's Fujian Province. Wu made an inspection tour in Fujian from Sept. 5 to 7. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Xueren]

Wu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, visited Pingtan Island, Taiwanese-funded companies, high-tech companies, and affordable housing projects during his inspection tour.

Pingtan Island, the fifth largest island in China, is the one closest to Taiwan.

Wu said further opening-up and faster growth of Pingtan would drive the entire economic zone on the western side of the Taiwan Strait, and called for efforts to focus on infrastructure construction and ecological programs at the current stage of its development.

The industrial development should favor low-carbon and high-tech industries, and at the same time having a certain number of labor-intensive ones, Wu said.

Wu also stressed environmental protection to preserve Pingtan's beautiful scenery.

Wu visited a Taiwanese-funded electronic company in Pingtan and told its manager to seize the opportunity as the mainland is currently a major producer and consumer of electronic products.

While visiting a research center based in Xiamen, Wu urged efforts to pool science and technology resources to support enterprises' innovation-drive in order to promote economic restructuring and industrial upgrading.

During his visit to Jinjiang city, where 95 percent of enterprises are privately owned, Wu said greater support should be given to private enterprises, particularly to those that are small-and-medium sized, as a major approach of economic restructuring.

Wu also stressed improving people's livelihoods in concert with economic development, asking local governments to channel greater funds into public service sectors, including health, education and assistance to low-income groups.

Further, Wu urged local governments to ensure sustained funding in building government-subsidized housing projects that ensure quality control.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a document in May 2009 that supported Fujian's construction of an economic zone on the western side of the Taiwan Strait.

The Western Taiwan Straits Economic Zone covers nine cities in southeastern Fujian Province, including Xiamen, Fuzhou, and Quanzhou, and 11 cities in neighboring Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces.

The development of the Pingtan experiment zone began in July 2009.