The city of Yuncheng in Shanxi Province is going to make investment promotion a top priority with the aim of accelerating the city's development during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) period, said Zhang Jianxi, the city's vice-mayor.

The city hopes to attract more investment to the key fields of manufacturing, ecological agriculture and tourism, Zhang said.

"We should bring in projects," Zhang said, "and more importantly, we should bring in their advanced technology, managing concepts and sales modes."

Zhang stressed that the city would not introduce any projects with high consumption of natural resources and pollution, which would hinder the city's sustainable development.

"We should make more efforts to extend our industry chain, upgrade technology and reduce pollution and consumption of natural resources," Zhang said, "the city must transform the production-oriented economic growth mode into a resource-economical one."

"We should also open wider our investment fields and offer our best projects to attract investment," Zhang said, "and we should have the courage to let foreign companies gain control of shares (of local firms)."

In addition to investment promotion, Zhang revealed the city's strategy to "go global."

Zhang said the city is going to establish more enterprises or joint ventures in Southeast Asia and the Middle East as the first step towards entering the international market.

"We must make great efforts to cultivate a batch of key enterprises with advanced technology and strong competitiveness," Zhang said.

Zhang said the city encourages major local enterprises to establish raw material bases in foreign countries through co-operation.

During the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) period, the city has enjoyed the fastest economic growth in history and achieved substantial economic and social development.

According to the Yuncheng Bureau of Commerce, the city's gross domestic product witnessed an average annual growth rate of 15.2 per cent.

The city's financial revenue increased from 1.43 billion yuan (US$176.5 million) in 2000 to 5.5 billion yuan (US$679 million) in 2005, an annual growth rate of 22.6 per cent.

In the first six months of this year, the city continued to show a good trend of economic growth.

The city's total retail sales of consumer goods reached 8.36 billion yuan (US$1.03 billion), an increase of 12.3 per cent over the same period last year.

In the past six months, the city's volume of imports and exports reached US$374 million, a year-on-year growth of 11.42 per cent.

The city's top six trade partners in the first six months of this year are Australia, Chile, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands and the United States.

(China Daily 07/25/2006 page17)