Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said at a seminar in Chengdu that multinationals invested 2 billion USD a year in China's west and had been increasing their input into this area in recent years.

Bo said that 1,915 new foreign funded enterprises had been incorporated in China's west last year, rising nearly 10 percent over the previous year. That was added by another 1,100 foreign businesses for the first eight months of this year.

China's west also represents huge market potential. Last year the retailing sales in this region reached nearly 900 billion yuan and went up at a similar pace as that in the east.

Residents in the 12 western provinces held some 2.1 trillion yuan of deposits (260 billion USD) in 2004. The 16 percent increase over that in 2003 was faster than the national average.

By People's Daily Online