China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should play a vanguard role in leading the economic development of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a senior official said Saturday.

Central SOEs should take promoting social development for the benefit of local residents and improving living standards in the region as their due responsibilities, said Wang Yong, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

"Central SOEs shouldn't follow the old path to expand blindly, abuse resources, or resort to treatment-after-pollution measures when seeking development in the region. They should take part in the construction of projects that improve local employment," Wang said while speaking at a conference of 121 central SOEs heads who were discussing building Xinjiang into an industrial highland.

Investment from central SOEs to the western region will double over the next five years, compared with the 2006-2010 period, as 31 central SOEs plan to invest 991.6 billion yuan (154.86 billion U.S. dollars) in Xinjiang from 2011 to 2015, Wang said at the gathering held in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang.

About 44 central SOEs invested a total of 573.9 billion yuan in developing Xinjiang's petroleum and petrochemical, coal, power and metallurgical industries by the end of 2010, sending central SOEs' contributions to the local industrial value-added output to more than 70 percent, data from the local government showed.

According to development programs drafted by the SASAC and central SOEs, central SOEs will focus on promoting high quality, high standard and cost-efficient projects in Xinjiang's petroleum and petrochemical, coal chemical and nonferrous metals sectors.

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