The State Council, China's cabinet, called at a work conference
on Friday and Saturday for carrying out the western development
strategy unswervingly.
Premier Wen Jiabao affirmed at the conference the achievements
made in carrying out the western development strategy over the past
four years and pointed out that the strategy would still be one of
China's top agendas.
Wen, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political
Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, urged an
all-around and coordinated development in the western regions,
asking governments at all levels to continue to speed up economic
and social development there.
Major tasks to develop the western regions at present and in the
time to come, Wen said, should include increasing farmers' income,
stepping up agricultural and rural development, protecting the
environment, returning farmland to forest and pasture, and
accelerating construction of infrastructure facilities.
Wen also stressed the importance of developing the western
regions in other ways, such as readjusting the industrial
structures and speeding up the development of public health,
culture and education.
In addition, Wen urged faster reform and opening up to the
outside and greater development of the non-public sector of the
economy in the western regions.
China initiated the western development strategy in 2000 to help
the relatively backward west catch up with the more well-off east.
The strategy is supported by a series of preferential policies for
the development of the western regions, including more investment,
preferential tax rates and flexible policies.
In 2003, China invested about 200 billion yuan (US$24.3 billion)
in infrastructure projects in the western regions, occupying 55.2
percent of the country's total annual investment in the region.
Eight key projects were completed last year, including three
road construction projects, an airport extension in Shaanxi
Province and four west-east electricity transmission projects.
The gigantic and technically challenging Qinghai-Tibet Railway
project has stretched its track length to 317 kilometers, with 195
kilometers newly finished last year.
Another significant project is China's west-east natural gas
pipeline project, starting from Tarim of the Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region to Shanghai. The 3,900 kilometer gas pipeline
used 11.65 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) last year, and brought the
total fulfilled investment to 21.6 billion yuan (US$2.6
billion).
(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2004)