Western China Preparing for Anticipated Economic Development

Four provinces and one autonomous region in western China are investing heavily in infrastructure facilities in a bid to accelerate the anticipated upsurge of the region.

The relatively backward infrastructure facilities in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Guizhou provinces and the Tibet Autonomous Region have long hindered the economic development of these areas.

In response to the central government's decision to shift the focus of economic development from eastern areas to the underdeveloped western China, the four provinces and the Tibet Autonomous Region have worked out detailed measures for improving local infrastructure facilities, and some achievements already have been realized.

Shaanxi Province, for example, built 1,000 km of highways last year, and now construction has begun on several other highways. The province also plans to invest 130 billion yuan over the next eight to ten years to construct more highways. Gansu Province is expected to invest 4.2 billion yuan in fixed assets this year, with funds for the communications sector alone standing at 5 billion yuan.

The province also will use 600 million yuan over the next six years to renovate and expand highways, railways, and airports. By the end of last year, Gansu's highway had stretched to some 36,212 kilometers.

A large ecological environment project costing 48.9 billion yuan will also be initiated soon, and between 2000 and 2010, the province will return 5.3 million hectares of farmland to forest. In 1999, landlocked Guizhou Province in southwest China spent a record 12.3 billion yuan to build railways and highways in order to stimulate local economic development. Thus far, the province's highways total 33,000 kilometers.

In the next two to three years, Guizhou is expected to become a communications hub linking southwest China, northwest China, and south China.

The Tibet Autonomous Region's investment in fixed assets will reach 6 billion yuan this year, up 20 percent over 1999. This is part of Tibet's effort to step up construction of communications, energy, and other facilities to accelerate local economic development.

Sichuan Province has also worked out a blueprint to increase the length of its highways to 100,000 kilometers in the next decade.

These areas are also accelerating the development of their tourist industries.

Gansu, for example, now lists tourism as a pillar industry, and will open many new tourist destinations in the next few years. By 2005, the province is expected to receive 300,000 overseas tourists, with tourism income reaching 5.5 billion yuan. Guizhou Province will host a series of ethnic cultural festivals and eco-tours to attract domestic and overseas tourists this year.

In 1999, more than 5.33 million domestic and overseas tourists visited Guizhou, an increase of 40 percent over 1998, generating 4. 8 billion yuan in income.

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