More State support for balanced regional economic development is on its way. This time, Central China is the beneficiary.

In a hotel room overlooking Beijing's Asian Games Village, Li Xiansheng, mayor of Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, said his city of 7.82 million is just as pleasant as the nation's capital and his people deserve a better life.

Li said his biggest plan centre on transforming the centuries-old transportation hub into a modern logistics nerve centre.

His ambition for the metropolis is widely viewed as an essential part in helping realize plans to develop Central China.

Central China's emergence was initiated at the central economic work conference last year in Beijing, and is one of six major economic tasks for 2005. The nation's leaders hope it can help narrow a widening prosperity gap between the country's coastal areas and its hinterlands.

The six central provinces - Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Henan, Shanxi and Anhui - account for 10 per cent of the country's land area and 28 per cent of its population.

When asked to comment on the competitive advantages of Wuhan, Li, a deputy to the National People's Congress, said Wuhan is a bridge that links western China to the eastern economic boom towns.

Thanks to its favourable geographic location, Wuhan is the centre of several national express railways and has enjoyed traffic conveniences since ancient times.

However, time has changed, and "the concept of transportation has evolved far beyond management of trucks and trains," Li said.

"In today's business world, the role of transportation in logistics and supply chains can be the hinge on which success or failure of the rising of Wuhan and the nearby region depends," the mayor added.

Li said his city is transforming the traditional view of transportation management, turning what used to be seen as a simple transfer station into a function that also offers good customer service.

"Our goal is to integrate resources from western and eastern China and maximize the resources with the least amount of investment," Li said.

"And Wuhan is best situated for that job."

Li said that there is a revolution taking place in the field of transportation in his city.

"We are broadening our job descriptions to include logistics and other functions relating to supply chain management and solutions," he said.

Li said the world today is "shrinking" or in other words, becoming "globalized." Logistics management is concerned with the integration and co-ordination of products and supplies across the planet.

"Wuhan is not only aiming at the domestic market but also the global one, in which firms and businesses stretch across borders to obtain materials and deliver goods to the markets and satisfy customers," Li added.

Efforts made to allow Wuhan and other localities in Hubei Province to fuse into such a role are not limited to land.

Li said Wuhan is actively applying for the fifth-freedom rights, which is generally defined as the right of an airline from one country to pick up and drop off traffic in a foreign country, then fly on to a third country where passengers and cargoes are deplaned.

The application was made to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China last October. Once granted, Wuhan will be able to serve as a stopover for international airlines between two foreign countries, where passengers and cargoes can be picked up and dropped off.

Li said such rights will bring opportunities for his city to enter the global logistics market and he hopes "the central government and related departments will seriously consider the application."

Wuhan is not striving alone, with its neighbouring provinces also doing their best to enhance co-operation and mutual support among eastern, western and central regions in order to realize common development goals.

Li sees "the acceleration of economic development in Central China as the key to overall healthy development of the Chinese economy."

Statistics show that the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of Central China equaled to 88 per cent of China's average in 1980 and the number dropped to 83 per cent in 1990. By 2003, it became only 75 per cent of the country's average level.

National blueprint

In 1978, when China first implemented its reform and opening-up policy, the central government decided to exercise special policies and flexible measures in the southern parts of the country, including Guangdong and Fujian provinces.

This marked the beginning of China's coastal area development strategy that encouraged better-endowed areas along the eastern and southeastern coast to develop ahead of inland regions.

The economic emphasis switched to the western regions at the turn of this century, and then to the northeast in 2003. All these priorities and strategies bypassed the central region.

At the central economic work conference in December 2004, the central government proposed to promote the emergence of Central China.

It also had a view towards realizing mutual promotion and common development of different parts of China.

Until then, the "emergence of Central China" appeared on the government's agenda for the first time and attracted broader attention.

Chinese political advisers also showed great concern over the matter, saying the central government should incorporate the policy as a regional development strategy into the nation's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), which is currently being drafted.

Thanks to its peculiar status, Central China's economic development may hinge on the overall trend and patterns of the nation's economic development, said CPPCC member Cao Hongming.

"Through co-ordination and macro-regulative measures, the nation could inspire the hinterlands to co-operate with coastal areas, to participate in the western development movement and the revitalization process of Northeast China," he said.

Starting from 2006, Cao advised a long-term mechanism be established to encourage the production of grain in Central China, a region known as the country's grain belt.

A proposal submitted by more than 100 CPPCC members from the six Central China provinces suggested the government adopt more preferential policies to boost the region's development, and to set up a cabinet-level office to co-ordinate Central China's growth.

Similar preferential policies like those adopted in Northeast China are also needed to revitalize traditional industrial cities in Central China, such as Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, it said.

Besides, additional funds from the central government are also needed to enhance infrastructure construction and to improve sectors such as power generation, materials and high-technology in the region, it said.

Need to reduce poverty

To build a harmonious society, said Cao, who is also the leader of China Zhi Gong Dang, one of the eight non-Communist parties in China, suggests that the nation should strengthen efforts to help poor people in the region shake off poverty.

Statistics indicate that about half of the country's poor population live in Central China, where there are 151 poverty-stricken counties, and about 3,000 villages cannot be reached by highways.

Therefore, to achieve the region's economic development, poverty alleviation is of paramount importance, Cao said.

Cai Yaojun has called on local governments there to speed up maintenance and repair of public water works facilities.

Such facilities have played important functions in pushing forward agricultural development since the 1970s but have suffered from bad maintenance in recent years, he noted.

Besides the government's efforts, non-governmental organizations and individuals are also welcomed in fighting poverty, advisers said.

(China Daily March 17, 2005)