Northeast China, the country's aging industrial center, is to be the focus of a new development program making it the home of four industrial bases, according to the Northeast China Revival Plan, which has been approved by the State Council, the country's cabinet, the Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday.

The bases will cover equipment manufacturing, new material and energy, commodity grain and animal husbandry production, and research and development of key technologies.

Areas in the plan involve Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's Hulunbeier, Tongliao, and Chifeng cities, and Xingan and Xilinguole leagues.

The area has a total population of 122 million and a land area of 1.45 million square kilometers.

The plan is to improve Northeast China's development in equipment manufacturing, including heavy machinery, computerized numerical control machine tools, electric power transmission equipment, vehicle and spare parts production, and rail transport equipment manufacturing, according to Wang Guanglin, researcher with the Liaoning Provincial Academy of Social Science.

"The establishment of these technological research and development and innovation bases will be supported by manufacturing sector," Wang said.

The State Council also ordered relevant departments to strengthen supervision, support, and implementation of the revival plan and create a sound policy environment for the revitalization of the old industrial bases.

However, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang have drafted their-own plans for the 11th Five-Year Program (2006-10) and different departments have some special blueprints, said Liu Xiaonan, a researcher with the provincial academy.

"Conditioned by administrative system, their plans lack cross-provincial projects and regional coordination. The separate plans are also lacking coordination," Liu said.

Officials from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the revival plan connects the special and regional plans to optimize distribution of resources.

The State Council also pointed out that administrative division barriers should be broken to promote reasonable allocation of resources and flows of production requisites.

Different government organs, including the Northeast Revitalization Leading Office of the State Council, the NDRC and China Development Bank, began drafting the plan in May, 2005.

(Chinadaily.com.cn August 9, 2007)