China vows to further develop its western region

The central government vows to develop China's western region, said Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan Thursday at the opening ceremony of the 2004 China Western Forum in Nanning, the capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

"China will adhere to the policy of developing the western region," he said, adding the pace of development "will not slow down."

The central government has been working hard to develop the western region, which includes hundreds of millions of people living in need in 11 provinces and autonomous regions and Chongqing municipality, for almost five years.

During that period, the vast region has greatly changed, Zeng said. Its GDP has grown at a rate of ten percent, and the growth rate of fixed assets investments has been around 20 percent. The disparity between the western region and the rest of the country has narrowed. Local residents now have better access to medical care and education. Their income has also increased.

"After the government reforested formerly cultivated land, we received compensation and no longer need to dig our food from the land all day long," said Huang Shaobin, a peasant farmer from Bafatun village of Bama autonomous county of Yao ethnicity.

The government has paid western farmers 49.2 billion yuan (about 6 billion US dollars) in the past four years to reforest former cultivated land.

The development process has just begun, however. Zhang Naijian, head of the Regional Development Research Institute of the Academy of Management Science of China, said the central government will go on investing in infrastructure, environment protection and agriculture and social welfare, and continue to guide the region to develop its competitive industries.

"The western region is weak in infrastructure development and ecological protection," said Li Zibin, deputy director general of the Office of the Leading Group for Western Region Development of the State Council. "Its culture, education and health care still lag behind the eastern parts of the country."

"The task of developing the vast west is arduous," Li acknowledged. "It may take five years, a decade, or even two decades."

Vice-Premier Zeng noted that while the western development strategy is a regional plan, it is of significant importance to the whole country's sustainable and coordinated development.

In March this year, the State Council issued a document with official suggestions on how to push forward western development, which has served as the guiding document to develop China's west.

Ministry officials attending the forum voiced their support for the development drive. Zhang Shaochun, assistant minister of finance, said the ministry will continue to give preferential policy and funds to help improve people's life in western China.