China will speed up its implementation of the "West Development"
strategy, Zeng Peiyan, minister of the State Development and
Planning Commission (SDPC), told a press conference in Beijing
Wednesday.
All 12 major projects to be launched this year, including the
Qinghai-Tibet railway and the "west to east natural gas
transmission" project, Zeng said, will require a total investment
in excess of 300 billion yuan (US$36.14 billion).
An
office in charge of the "West Development" program had been set up
last year. It has formulated a package of preferential policies and
published a master plan for implementing the strategy, Zeng
said.
Zeng also said that about 40 percent of year 2000's "ten major
projects" task, which the government gave an investment of 70
billion yuan, had been completed and put into production
successfully.
Progress has also been made in restoring farmland once reclaimed
from forests and pastures.
The minister stressed the "West Development" a major economic
strategy taken by the Chinese government in the 21st century.
Therefore, in the coming five to ten years, the government is
determined to make a breakthrough in infrastructure and ecological
construction.
When asked about China's active fiscal policy, the top planner
firmly said that precaution against and curtailing deflation while
preventing inflation will be the main tasks of this year's
macro-economic control.
He
said that the economic downturn began in 1993 was arrested last
year and prices also returned to normal from successive negative
growths.
However, the foundation for growth was still not secure. Most
commodities are in excessive supply; income growth of more than 70
percent of the rural population is slow; the purchasing power is
limited; and investment by the private sector is inactive. Many
uncertainties that have cropped up in the international economy,
including the recent slowdown of the US economy, will affect
China's foreign trade.
Under such circumstances, he said, curtailing deflation while
preventing inflation is quite necessary.
The minister also provided some indicators:
The country will strive to bring the per capita annual income up to
an estimated 8,000 yuan from 6,280 yuan in urban areas and to 3,000
yuan from 2,550 yuan in rural areas.
The living environment for both urban and rural residents will be
improved too, with the forest coverage in the country as a whole to
reach 18.2 percent and the urban green coverage to reach 35
percent.
The urban housing proportion should reach 22 square metre per
person while the rural residents will share an even larger one.
In
response to a question by a Taiwan reporter, Zeng said that after
the Chinese mainland becomes a WTO member, Taiwan will also join
and that will help further promote economic co-operation and trade
across the Straits.
He
also noted that the accession of the mainland to the WTO will
provide investors from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao with more
opportunities to get access to new areas of investment.
(China Daily 03/08/2001)