China's western development plan has helped the country's comparatively backward western provinces take on a new look over the past five years. Officials say China this year will put more energy into promoting local economic and social development in this region.
 
Li Zibin is deputy-director of Office of the Leading Group for Western Region Development of the State Council.

He confirms that China's west has seen an economic boom due to the Western development drive.

"In the past five years, infrastructure for transport, energy, water conservancy and telecommunications in China's west have seen unprecedented progress. More emphasis has been put on protecting ecosystems and the environment. Education and sanitation have also developed at a rapid pace."

China has invested more than 850 billion yuan, or about US$106 billion  in infrastructure and half of it is has been financed by the central government.

The West development plan has accelerated GDP growth there to over ten percent each year, much higher than the national average. And it has also improved nearly 100 million local people's living conditions.

In the past, inconvenient transport hindered the west's economic development. This plan has put transport construction at the top of the agenda with a view to making better use of the region's abundant resources and forging closer links between east and west.

China's Minister of Communications Zhang Chunxian says five years of effort has reversed the backwardness of western transport.

"China has allocated more than 130 billion yuan, or about 16 billion dollars to western transport. So far, China has built a total of over 750,000 kilometers of roads and among them the expressway has hit a record of 8,600 kilometers. In the past, it took 15 days by car to get from China's east port to the west's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region but now it only needs 2 days."

Despite these achievements in western development, there remain many problems to solve like environmental degradation.

Chinese vice-premier Zeng Peiyan suggests various measures for the future development:

"The Chinese government will increase financial support for the western provinces, attract more foreign investment and talented people and bring in more advanced technology to the west."

China's western region accounts for 70 percent of China's land territory and is home to 360 million people.

(CRI February 1, 2005)