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The country's northwest areas need to readjust their development
strategy, which stresses natural resource exploitation, said
an article in the Science and Technology Daily.
The northwest areas, which include Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai
provinces and Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions,
have rich natural resources but weak industrial foundations.
To speed up their progress, the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000)
development outline has set the use of resources and energy
as the development strategy's focus.
While the strategy is guiding the economic development in the
northwest areas, dramatic changes, however, have taken place
in the world economy.
Due to a worldwide deflation, the international price indices
of energy, metals and minerals as well as raw materials, declined
respectively by 28.5 percent, 15.4 percent and 24.1 percent
in 1998.
Domestically, there has been a surplus in the supply of raw
materials and energy in recent years, also leading to a slide
in prices.
As the country's coastal areas make more use of international
resources and markets, the raw material industries, such as
coal, chemical, petroleum and metallurgy, are being drawn to
those areas. Consequently, the northwest areas' advantage in
raw materials will weaken.
Experts said that during the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) the
old development strategy will not be able to drive local economic
development; instead, it might lead to blind investment and
duplicative construction.
A dramatic readjustment to the development strategy is a must,
the article stressed.
Research indicates that investment into education, telecommunications
and infrastructure construction will contribute more to economic
growth. The new development strategy, therefore, should highlight
the following:
_ Expand investment to improve education, health care and the
people's ability to absorb knowledge and information.
_ Develop labor-intensive industries to promote employment and
reduce the number of poverty-stricken people.
_ Develop projects whose goals also include protecting the environment
by preventing soil erosion, and that reuses waste water and
uses desert land.
The northwest areas should readjust their industrial and product
structure so that they are in line with domestic and international
market demand. They should replace heavy industry with light
industry focusing on farm and livestock product processing.
The top priority in developing the economy in the northeast
is to increase the rural population's income. Currently, the
per capita income of farmers in the area is approximately 65-80
per cent of the country's average.
To raise the income of local farmers and herdsmen, more efforts
must be placed on the construction of a modern, large-scale,
efficient agricultural production system that uses advanced
technology.
Local grain structure should be readjusted by increasing the
proportion of fodder crop. Through the promotion of animal husbandry,
farmers can obtain a higher income from grain planting.
Moreover, more cultivated pastures need to be established. Herdsmen
should be encouraged to permanently settle down to work in one
area.
The northwest has many farm products and fruits which are famous
nationwide. When fields are expanded, the planting should be
integrated with intensive processing and trade.
In the northwest, natural resource exploitation is the backbone,
also single, industry in some cities. There are, for example,
"cities of coal," "cities of oil" and "cities
of iron and steel." After the development strategy is changed,
these cities must alter their development model, said the article.
One choice is to develop other industries, such as tourism.
In 1998, the northwest was visited by only 1.3 percent of foreign
tourists who came to China. Tourism has the potential to be
a major industry, given the breath-taking scenic spots and historical
relics in the northwest.
(China Daily10/11/1999)
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