More Sate Economic, Technological Zones in Western Region

China has approved the establishment of 11 state economic and technological development zones (ETDZs) in its central and western region this year, bringing the total number of such zones in the region to 16.

These zones are expected to play an active role in the development of western region, and in the promotion of the co-ordinated development of regional economies, according to sources with the on-going fourth China Fair for International Investment and Trade, which opened in this port city in east China's Fujian Province on Friday.

At present, China has 43 state-level ETDZs, which have attracted foreign investments of more than 32 billion US dollars, the sources said.

During the January-June period this year, the state ETDZs produced a GDP of 73.95 billion yuan (8.9 billion U.S. dollars), a tax revenue of 13.29 billion yuan (1.6 billion US dollars), and a trade volume of 14.63 billion U.S. dollars, or 6.76 percent of the nation's total.

During the first six months, the state ETDZs attracted a contractual foreign investment of 3.8 billion U.S. dollars, and the amount of foreign funds used was 1.81 billion U.S. dollars.

Statistics show that the state ETDZs have so far used an accumulated foreign investment of 34.11 billion U.S. dollars.



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