In 2000 China started the "Develop the West" campaign. The
government offered preferential policies to the western region in
terms of capital input, investment environment, international and
external opening-up, development of science and education, and
human resources, thus making western China a land of great
development. In the five years between 2000 and 2004, 60 key
projects were started in western China, involving an investment of
over 850 billion yuan.
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The western region includes nine provinces and autonomous regions,
namely, Gansu, Guizhou, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet,
Xinjiang and Yunnan, in addition to Chongqing Municipality,
accounting for two thirds of the nation’s total area and 22.8
percent of its population. Western China is rich in minerals,
energy (including hydropower), tourist and land resources. Viewed
as a whole, eastern China on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River
has long coastal lines, totaling 14,000 km; and the western part of
the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, bordered by more than 10
countries, has 3,500 km of land frontiers. Hence it is believed
that western China will become the next golden area for
opening-up.?
As the government was working out an overall plan for the
development of the western region (the plan also covering Inner
Mongolia and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions), it formulated a
suite of preferential policies and measures for encouraging foreign
businesses to invest there. For instance, to encourage
foreign-funded enterprises in central and western China, the
government has decided that, their income tax will be collected at
the reduced rate of 15 percent for three years following the end of
the implementation period of the existing preferential tax policy,
and that the income tax rate for exporting enterprises will be
exempt or reduced to a minimum 10 percent. Furthermore, the
top-level governments in the west enjoy authority equivalent to
that of the coastal provinces and municipalities, and may approve
foreign-funded projects with an investment of less than US$30
million on their own.?
Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province; Chengdu, capital of Sichuan
Province, and Chongqing Municipality have been designated by the
Central Government as three key municipal economic zones,
functioning as an axis to promote development across the whole
western area. The Ministry of Science and Technology approved a
program for "Western China's Silicon Valley," a national-level new
and high-tech industrial development belt in Shaanxi Province, with
the Shaanxi section of the Longhai Railway (Lianyungang-Lanzhou) as
the axis. This project integrates on Shaanxi's Guanzhong Plain four
national-level and three provincial-level development zones,
together with several dozen industrial and sci-tech parks. These
sites will serve as bases for new and high-tech industries, such as
electronic information, software, biomedicine, aeronautics,
astronautics and new materials. They also will further promote the
development of the relevant scientific research and industries and
accelerate economic development in the surrounding areas.