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China will draw on experience of foreign countries in formulating
policies for large-scale development of its western regions, a
government official said at a press conference Saturday in Beijing.
"We will take the practices of the United States, Canada, Japan and
Italy as a reference when drafting the overall western development
program, said Li Zibin, deputy director of the Office of the
Leading Group under the State Council for the Development of the
Western Regions.
"We'll draw on their successful experience to formulate policies
geared to the actual conditions of the circumstances in China's
western regions and the overall situation of China," said Li.
China has stated it would balance ecological environment with
economic growth in the western development drive.
More than 500 billion yuan (US$60.24 billion) will be invested in
four areas to improve the ecological environment in the western
regions, including protection of natural forests, returning
farmland to forests, desertification control and closing pastures
for the renewal of grassland.
Energy production is high on the agenda of the western development.
Construction of two landmark projects, the west-to-east electricity
transmission project and the west-to-east natural gas pipeline,
have already begun.
It
is also learnt at the press conference that in the development of
the western regions, domestic private investors are given the same
access as foreign investors.
(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2003)
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