Business Tops Guangdong's Crusade to West

Governor Lu Ruihua of Guangdong Province was overjoyed when his delegation of 1,000 businesspeople concluded more than 100 deals at the Investment and Trade Fair for Cooperation between East and West China held in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, earlier this month.

According to Lu, his province's local enterprises are also eager to attend other trade fairs in western China, including the China Coastal Enterprises Commodity Fair and Investment Trade Talks scheduled for Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, in May, and the investment and trade fair to be held in Chongqing in mid-June.

Mr. Lu said that the state policy to spur the economic development of the vast western region has not only brought " historical opportunities" for the region, but also new opportunities for developed eastern area.

Western China including nine provinces and autonomous regions and one municipality, with a total area of 5.4 million square kilometers and a population of 285 million, accounts for 56 percent and 23 percent, respectively, of the national total.

Less-developed western China has abundant water, minerals, natural gas, and biological resources, and a large market consisting of one-quarter of China's consumers.

Under the country's develop-the-west strategy, a great number of projects will be built there, and this will mean huge investment opportunities. These include the planned construction of eight highways at a cost of 120 billion yuan (about US$ 14.46 billion).

During the tenth Five-Year-Plan period (2001-2005), investment in major railway infrastructure projects in western China alone will hit 100 billion yuan (US$ 12 billion) and by the year of 2005, the total length of railway in the west will reach one million km.

By the year 2010, the country's investment in forestry and ecological construction in the western region will exceed 200 billion yuan (about US$ 24.1 billion).

On the other hand, China's two decades of reform and opening-up has turned this southern province of Guangdong into an important economic powerhouse with one-tenth of the country's gross economic value.

However, the province has been plagued by overproduction for the past several years, and is now actively helping residents from the poor areas of western China. It has donated over one billion yuan (US$ 120 million) in cash and in kind areas in Guizhou Province, Chongqing Municipality, and the Guangxi Zhuang and Tibet autonomous regions.

It has also earmarked special funds to finance construction of public welfare projects, relocate people from harsh environments to places with better living conditions, help people from poor areas become prosperous by starting development projects, as to train administrative officials and build more than 191 Project Hope schools in poor areas of western China.

Wu Kaili, deputy head of the Guangdong Provincial Economic and Trade Commission, said, "To help the west with its economic development, we want to be a cooperator, not an intruder."

He believes that Guangdong has an edge over western China in its concepts, capital, management expertise and export market, but lacks the vast resources of western China such as land, labor, minerals, forests, and hydropower.

In the meantime, Guangdong's economic structure is dominated by light processing industries, while western China is concentrated on heavy industry.

With the establishment of a complementary and profit-sharing system between Guangdong and the western region, coupled with the government's preferential treatment policies and information and technological services, cooperation can be everlasting, bringing about common development and prosperity for both partners, said the official.

"Our crusade to the west should not simply be the shipment of commodities. Rather, we should improve Guangdong's talent and economic structure, and realize faster industrial upgrading by participating in the national campaign to develop western China for common prosperity between the east and the west," Wu explained.



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