Shanghai Participates in Developing Western ChinaShanghai, the largest economic and commercial center in east China, has taken the lead in seeking business opportunities in China's vast western region.Over the past five months, Huang Ju, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, led investigative tours of China's western region and made development plans with leaders in Henan, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu and Qinghai. More than 500 cooperation projects, valued at 29.86 billion yuan (about 3.6 billion US dollars) in infrastructure construction, ecological protection, resources exploration, tourism, science and education, were signed during the tours. A research report on Shanghai's participation in the development of the western region has also been completed. According to the report, Shanghai has provided western China with its advantages in infrastructure construction, education, science and technology and service sectors and encourage more engineering enterprises, talent of all kinds, financial, information and consulting enterprises to go to the western region. Shanghai policy-makers shared the opinion that the strategy of developing western China is different from the frontier troops stationed there to reclaim the wasteland 50 years ago, and the economic development of coastal regions in 1980s. Huang Ju stressed that new ways should be developed to expand cooperation in social and economic development between east and west. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |