Industrial development in western China in the past decade

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that the added value of industry reached RMB 2.25 trillion in western China in 2008, a 22.96 percent rise over the level in 1999. During the decade the share of industrial added value in GDP scaled up from 19.6 to 38.7 percent in the region, and industrial sectors' contribution to GDP growth nearly doubled - from 25.7 to 47.7 percent.

By tapping into local resources the western region has fostered industries of local traits that are competitive nationwide. These include dairy products and cashmere of Inner Mongolia, sugar making in Guangxi, the prime-quality cotton and food processing of Xinjiang.

Some have built a name in mining and mineral-related sectors -- Gansu and Yunnan in lead and zinc, Sichuan in vanadium and titanium, Qinghai in potash fertilizer and Guizhou in phosphoric fertilizer. Others are China’s powerhouses: Xinjiang, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Sichuan and Chongqing are the emerging bases of petroleum and natural gas production; hydropower is booming in the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers; and coal-fired electricity is pumped out of northern Shaanxi, western Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Guizhou and Yunnan.

Nearly 50,000 mining enterprises, exclusive those drilling gas and oil, are located in western China, accounting for 39.3 percent of that category across China. Their annual output stands at 1.797 billion tons, 28.7 percent of the national total.

Energy, chemistry, equipment, metallurgy, farm products processing and tourism are becoming the new pillars of the economy in western China, turning the region into a major supplier to the nation of energy, chemicals and certain raw materials. New materials, new energy, electronics and information technology are briskly advancing sectors, expected to lead remarkable optimization of the local industrial structure.

During the ten years from 1999 to 2008 the production value of western China increased from RMB 1.53 trillion to RMB 5.83 trillion, marking an annual growth rate of 16 percent by average. And its share in the national GDP rose from 17.2 to 19.4 percent.