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West Crippled by Red Tape
The central government officials vowed to improve after local authorities from western China complained Wednesday that bureaucracy has hindered development of the western regions.
"We have lined up the money and the personnel for projects, but we still have to wait a long time to get the go-ahead from many central government departments,'' Wang Hanming, vice-chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said in front of central government officials. "Too many projects from road building to the west-east electricity transmission project have to be delayed because they do not have approval. We call on the central government to settle the problem. Otherwise, the west development campaign will be dampened,'' Wang said.
His comments were made at Wednesday's session of the Western Forum of China 2001.
Li Zibin, vice-minister of the State Development Planning Commission, conceded that the approval process is too complicated and too long. He said the State is studying ways to ease the application process for projects.
"We are going to deal with projects differently, based on the different investors,'' Li said. "For projects with local government investors or private investors, the process will be easier.''
Li said applications sometimes need lengthy study to avoid duplicating construction.
Zou Guangyan, an official from Yunnan Province, also said improving the investment environment by ending the bureaucracy should be the centerpiece of the west's development.
Zou also called on the central government to do a better job speeding up the development of west China.
"Although the central government decided to launch the Go-West campaign in late 1999 to boost the economy there, development is relatively slow because the central government has not yet unveiled detailed guidelines,'' Zou said.
Li told China Daily that the central government would release its plan for the west development in October.
"Personally, I agree that development should be accelerated, but it takes time to co-ordinate with different departments,'' Li said.
Since 1999, the State has made significant investments in west regions' economy to help it catch up with its counterparts in the east.
Source: China Daily
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