Govt money to flood Yellow River Delta
Govt money to flood Yellow River Delta
08:37, December 04, 2009 
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The State Council has approved a plan to develop the Yellow River Delta (YRD) in East China's Shandong Province into an efficient and environmentally-friendly economic zone, State-run media reported Wednesday.
The development of the country's last underdeveloped river delta will be raised to a nationally strategic level, according to the People's Daily's website. The region includes such major cities as Dongying and Binzhou and takes up about one sixth of the size of the province.
"The Yellow River Basin is facing a historic opportunity to develop," Zhang Jianhua, the mayor of Dongying, said in the city Friday, according to the China Economic Times.
Zhang said the development of the region will be led by the service industry like tourism while agriculture and industry will also be given a boost.
Shandong is expected to invest 1.5 trillion yuan ($219.6 billion) during the Eleventh Five-year Plan period (2006- 2010) to develop the delta, which will support sustainable development of the provincial economy, according to the local government.
The development plan, released by the local government in March 2008, aims for regional growth of 15 percent annually during the five-year plan period. At the same time, it aims to lower the aggregate per-GDP energy consumption by 24 percent.
Some experts doubt the practicability of such a plan and stated the ecological development of such an area could be just a political campaign.
Dongying city, home to the nation's second largest oilfield, is the engine of the YRD economy, said Liu Weixin, a regional economy researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Liu said the delta is a typical resource-dependent region, with oil and chemical industries serving as its foundation. "They are all heavily polluting businesses."
Indeed, the plan said that the area is running short of water and having difficulties in cleaning up its polluted environment.
The country has moved a large number of energy-intensive production factories to the eastern coastal areas, such as the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and the Yangtze River Delta (YaRD), to take advantage of their natural harbors. However, these thriving economies face even more severe environmental problems.
The PRD in South China's Guangdong Province was struck by the worst dust haze in 10 years last week. A large hospital in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, received 20 percent more asthma patients than usual during the storm, according to Southern Daily.
YRD does not have the natural capacity to compete with the PRD and the YaRD because it is in a remote location that lacks good harbors, Liu of CASS added.
However, the plan excited investors who pushed up the prices of stocks of companies expected to benefit from the plan Wednesday, according to Hua Le, an analyst at Hengtai Securities.
A group of six delta-located companies' yuan-denominated A shares closed up by 10 percent Wednesday.
Source: Global Times
The development of the country's last underdeveloped river delta will be raised to a nationally strategic level, according to the People's Daily's website. The region includes such major cities as Dongying and Binzhou and takes up about one sixth of the size of the province.
"The Yellow River Basin is facing a historic opportunity to develop," Zhang Jianhua, the mayor of Dongying, said in the city Friday, according to the China Economic Times.
Zhang said the development of the region will be led by the service industry like tourism while agriculture and industry will also be given a boost.
Shandong is expected to invest 1.5 trillion yuan ($219.6 billion) during the Eleventh Five-year Plan period (2006- 2010) to develop the delta, which will support sustainable development of the provincial economy, according to the local government.
The development plan, released by the local government in March 2008, aims for regional growth of 15 percent annually during the five-year plan period. At the same time, it aims to lower the aggregate per-GDP energy consumption by 24 percent.
Some experts doubt the practicability of such a plan and stated the ecological development of such an area could be just a political campaign.
Dongying city, home to the nation's second largest oilfield, is the engine of the YRD economy, said Liu Weixin, a regional economy researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Liu said the delta is a typical resource-dependent region, with oil and chemical industries serving as its foundation. "They are all heavily polluting businesses."
Indeed, the plan said that the area is running short of water and having difficulties in cleaning up its polluted environment.
The country has moved a large number of energy-intensive production factories to the eastern coastal areas, such as the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and the Yangtze River Delta (YaRD), to take advantage of their natural harbors. However, these thriving economies face even more severe environmental problems.
The PRD in South China's Guangdong Province was struck by the worst dust haze in 10 years last week. A large hospital in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, received 20 percent more asthma patients than usual during the storm, according to Southern Daily.
YRD does not have the natural capacity to compete with the PRD and the YaRD because it is in a remote location that lacks good harbors, Liu of CASS added.
However, the plan excited investors who pushed up the prices of stocks of companies expected to benefit from the plan Wednesday, according to Hua Le, an analyst at Hengtai Securities.
A group of six delta-located companies' yuan-denominated A shares closed up by 10 percent Wednesday.
Source: Global Times
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