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Economic zones refuel western development

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-22 10:13
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According to Huang, in 2008 alone, the city of Qinzhou introduced investment totaling 15.76 billion yuan ($2.32 billion), including 41 large-scale projects. International companies such as SK Telecom of the Republic of Korea, and Japan's Marubeni and Mitsui have also come to Qinzhou to discuss cooperation.

The Chinese government initiated the strategy to develop its vast western region in 2000, since then large projects such as the transmission of natural gas and electricity from west to east have marked the first period of development.

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The second period of western region development will focus on innovation, and the cultivation of key areas and new growing industries. After the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, the development planning for the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone was approved by the State Council this year.

The three key economic zones are expected to act like a three-cylinder engine to boost the economy in West China, upgrading its industry structure, and promoting the development quality.

For instance, the Chengdu-Chongqing area has been lagging behind in the IT industry compared to other regions due to geographic conditions, though it boasts many IT talents and old electronic industry bases.

The financial crisis has forced the IT and relevant industries to speed up moving to the IT talent-rich western region with lower costs in human and natural resources. In October, Intel announced to add an investment of $75 million to its Chengdu plant.

By the end of November, Intel has finished moving its assembly and test plants from Shanghai to Chengdu. Before that, Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group had just contracted to invest $1 billion to build a manufacturing base in Chengdu.

In August 2009, Hewlett-Packard made Chongqing home for its 20-million-laptop program. The city also signed with Taiwan's Quanta company to build a processing base for its 40 million laptops. It's estimated the revenue for the altogether 60 million notebooks could reach $80 billion.

According to Liu Shiqing, head of the Institute of Regional Economic Research of Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, western China's investment environment has been improved under the central government's favorable policies.

In 2008, $6.62 billion have been invested in China's western region. Nearly 200,000 enterprises from eastern China have invested or set up ventures in the western region with combined investment exceeding 2.2 trillion yuan ($323.5 billion).

According to the Annual Report on Economic Development in Western Region of China (2009) issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the GDP of the western region reached 5.83 trillion yuan ($856.7 billion) in 2008, with an annual growth rate of 11.42 percent, exceeding the national average ratio of 9.64 percent. The western region accounted for 17.8 percent of the national GDP.

In the first half of 2009, the western region also witnessed a faster economic growth rate than the central and eastern regions.

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