Five years after it was floated, China's plan to develop its west has helped autonomous regions such as Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region to break out of economic isolation and lift its people out of poverty.

A forum on China's western development is being held in Guangxi this week, five years after the initiative to bring western China out of its backwardness was launched.

Some 300 experts, government officials and entrepreneurs from the western regions, occupying two thirds of China's territory and boasting one third of the total population, have gathered here to exchange experience and seek new development ideas. "With the injection of 400 billion yuan (48 billion US dollars) into the west since the start of the "Go West" policy, western China has taken on a new look," said Ma Xiaohe, a scholar and director of the Institute of Industrial Development under the State Development and Planning Commission (SDPC), the engine of China's finance.

The economy of Guangxi -- home to 48 million people from more than 30 ethnic groups, including the largest Zhuang minority population in the country -- has grown by more than 10 percent annually over the past five years, as have the economies of all 12western provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. This is faster than the national average of 9.1 percent last year and of 7.7 percent from 1997 to 2002.

At the launch of western development five years ago, the first thing many people in the region associated with the policy may have been the banners everywhere saying, "Western Development starts with the roads."

Now the mileage of expressway in the west has exceeded 7,000 kilometers, and the figure is expected to hit 10,000 km next year and 20,000 km in 2010, said Vice Minister of Transportation Weng Mengyong on the forum.

Wu Dengyue, a doctor from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, recalled his hazardous journey from eastern China to Xinjiang four decades ago. From Urumqu to Kashi, he traveled for seven days on a caravan on the muddy road. Now it is a one-day trip.

"With infrastructure like roads and airports greatly improved, western China, well placed to compete in special farm produce and mineral resources, can now tap its advantages, which hold limitless profits," Ma said.

The Inner Mongolia-based Mengniu Dairy Group tells a successful story. With one million yuan (120,000 US dollars) allocated from the central budget in 1999, Horinger county in Inner Mongolia autonomous region set up an economic park where the group was born.

By capitalizing on the vast grassland, Mengniu's daily production capacity has reached 4,500 tons. Along with Yili, another big dairy brand in Inner Mongolia, it occupies 40 percent of China's market share.

Through turning sandy, low-yeild farmland to grassland and raising milk cows, local farmers are living better lives. A family with four milk cows can earn 14,400 yuan (some 1,700 US dollars) in net profit per year, and the number of milk cows in Horinger increased tenfold in the past five years.

Some new industries in western China are getting bigger and stronger by embracing technology.

In southwest China's Yunnan province, Yunnan Tianhua Group, which started producing glass fiber in 1999, has been turned one of the three biggest glass fiber production bases in China, with the annual capacity of 73,000 tons. Seventy percent of its products are exported to European and Latin American countries. It has set the goal to become one of the world's top-15 glass fiber producers in five years.

Many foreign investors, unsure about tapping the western market five years ago, now feel confident about investing in the region. Nearly one hundred of the world top 500 companies have set up subsidiaries here.

Foreign direct investment in western China is expected to reach3 billion US dollars by the end of this year, 70 percent more than last year.

Eighteen projects with a total investment of about two billion US dollars from multinational companies, including chip maker Intel, will go into operation by the end of this year in the nation's western areas, with most being in high value-added industries.

Source: Xinhua