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China's special economic zones (SEZs), which heralded in the
decades-old reform and opening drive, would go on pioneering in
some reforms although the country has entered the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and the central government would stop giving
them all the preferential policies that they had enjoyed, said some
NPC deputies Tuesday.
These deputies of the National Committee of the National People's
Congress (NPC), who are in the current First Session of the 10th
NPC in this national capital Beijing, are optimistic about the
future of their SEZs, by acknowledging the fact that these pilot
areas are much more international and market-oriented thanks to the
policies adopted for the SEZs more than two decades ago.
As
a result, these SEZs could continue to play an exemplary role to
other parts of the country as their economic system and rules are
more compatible to the framework and regulations of the WTO, said
Dong Mingzhu, an entrepreneur from Zhuhai city, in south China's
Guangdong Province.
Li
Chunhong, mayor of Shantou City in Guangdong, said the SEZs have
accomplished the tasks entrusted by the central government to pilot
the market-oriented reform and opening to the outside world over
the past two decades, accumulated a wealth of experience and built
up a good investment environment useful for their future
development. "The SEZs should no longer rely on preferential
policies endorsed by the central government," he said, "they must
create new wealth by taping the advantages of their own."
Instead of turning to special policies and aid from the central
government as before, Yu Youjun, mayor of Shenzhen said that the
SEZs should probe into how to further deepening reforms and
expanding the opening-up, he said, adding that "it constitutes the
new mission for the SEZs."
In
eight years from 1980 to 1988, China established the SEZs in
Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen cities, and Hainan Province.
Since then, these SEZs have scored substantial progress and played
a pioneering role in the country's reform and opening drive.
After more than two decades of growth, Shenzhen last year recorded
16 percent of China's total imports and exports and generated more
than 80 billion yuan (about US$9.63 billion) in taxes, and turned
some 50 billion yuan (about US$6.02 billion) to the State.
The development of SEZs are imbalanced, nevertheless, and a few
SEZs, such as Hainan island Province, have lagged behind other open
cities in the Zhujiang (Pearl) River Delta and Yangtze River Delta
areas, because of various factors.
The reality has prompted Hainan to readjust its plan and define a
new objective for the future development.
"The Hainan SEZ is an agricultural province, a province for
farmers," said Wang Qishan, secretary of the Hainan Provincial
Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), "it will be turned
into an all-season lush green garden as well as a scenic tourist
resort in China."
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2003)
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