Chairman of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Ismail Tiliwaldi, talks to China.org.cn about Xinjiang's development in the last five years and what it has been like rebuilding the quake regions of Jiashi and Bacu.

The chairman was in Beijing on March 5-18 attending the First Session of the 10th National People's Congress.

After-quake Relief

An earthquake that registered 6.8 on the Richter scale hit Xinjiang's Bacu and Jiashi counties on February 24 this year. It killed 268 people and injured more than 4,000. About 18,000 buildings collapsed with another 62,000 partly damaged by the quake. Infrastructure facilities such as irrigation, electric wires, bridges, and rural water supply projects were damaged seriously. The authorities are evaluating the extent of the damage to property.

Ismail Tiliwaldi expressed his gratitude towards the central government's speedy help. "Rescue operations have worked smoothly with the help of relevant departments and authorities. Over 4,000 armed police and soldiers were dispatched to the front line to help the quake victims. By now, no one in the area is any longer a victim of hunger, cold, or illness and no students have dropped out," said the chairman.

The homeless have now been relocated to "live, study and work temporarily" in cotton camps sprung up around the counties, according to Ismail Tiliwaldi. Some farmers are even preparing for the spring plowing and seeding the cotton.

"A new kind of anti-quake house made of plastic and steel will mushroom in the counties," he told China.org.cn. The houses are featured for their heat protection and anti-quake function. Each household will have such a building of 50 square meters with a construction cost of 20,000 yuan (US$2,416) before the winter. Preliminary public bidding work for the rebuilding projects is proceeding.

People nationwide have given their aid to the quake victims in almost no time. By now, Xinjiang has registered over 80 million yuan donations and 20 million pieces of relief materials.

Rapid Development in Last Five Years

"The last five years are significant in Xinjiang's development," said the chairman. Riding high on annual growth of 7.8 percent in the last five years, Xinjiang registered a GDP of 159.8 billion yuan (US$19.31 billion) in 2002, 45.3 percent higher than 105 billion yuan (US$12.69 billion) in 1997. Its revenue was 21.2 billion yuan (US$2.56 billion) in 2002, 93 percent growth up from 11.1 billion (US$1.34 billion) yuan in 1997, with 14 percent annual growth. In 2002, Xinjiang's foreign trade volume shot up to US$2.6 billion, 85.7 growth from US$1.45 billion in 1997.

Over the past five years, Xinjiang has put much effort into developing its economy according to its resource strengths, Ismail Tiliwaldi said. Xinjiang turned out 1.5 million tons of cotton, accounting for 40 percent of the nation's total, in 2002. Over 20 million tons of crude oil, namely one-third of China's total exploitation in 2002, were pumped out of Xinjiang. Moreover, the fruit industry booms at a surprising pace. Xinjiang is the biggest growing base for the meldar and tomato nationwide. The blossoming tourism industry features also in its economic development strategy. According to official accounts, Xinjiang received 270,000 foreign travelers in 2002 and 10 million domestic travelers.

Significant progress has been achieved in infrastructural (facility) investment in the past five years. Ismail Tiliwaldi said that total fixed asset investment within 1997-2002 period was 318.3 billion yuan (US$38.46 billion), 87 percent more than the total investment within 1992-1996. In 2002, Xinjiang earmarked all its social investment of 81.2 billion (US$9.81 billion) yuan for infrastructural facility construction such as irrigation, energy and railway. Though Xinjiang lies in vast desolated western China, Ismail Tiliwaldi is proud of the telecommunication industry's speedy investment. All counties and towns have already connected with Autoexchange Net for long-distance calls.

Living standards improved obviously. According to Ismail Tiliwaldi, urban citizens in Xinjiang had an average disposable income of 7,276 yuan (US$879) in 2002, much higher than 2,427 yuan (US$293) in 1997. Suburban citizens also had an average disposable income of 1860 yuan (US$224), 371 yuan (US$42.40) more than that of 1997.

Xinjiang in the Go-west Strategy

The autonomous region has increased its investment since China decided to develop its western region. In 2000, Xinjiang's investment in fixed assets amounted to some 60 billion yuan (US$7.25 billion), that later climbed to 70.2 billion yuan (US$8.48 billion), 81.2 billion yuan (US$9.81 billion) in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Xinjiang aims to achieve a fixed asset investment of 90 billion yuan (US$10.87 billion) in 2003 and over 100 billion yuan (US$12.08 billion) in 2004.

"Xinjiang boasts rich resources with outstanding agricultural and animal husbandry advantages," said Ismail Tiliwaldi, "Feature agriculture is a key for turning the advantage of its resources into an economic advantage." He thinks that Xinjiang should develop a way to cut costs and improve the quality of its main crops such as cotton. Some local red fruits like red radishes and tomatoes in Tianshan Mountain are expected to play a role in the featured economic strategy.

(China.org.cn by Staff Reporter Yan Xinxia, translated by Alex Xu, March 19, 2003)