Lawmakers from western China meeting at the national legislature's annual session call on the government to pay more attention to the widening gap between the east and west regions in economic and social development.

Encouraging achievements have been made since China began to implement the strategy for massive development in the vast west region five years ago, but the gap between the developed eastern region and less-developed western region still kept widening, said Niu Shaoyao, a legislator from Yunnan Province, southwest China.

According to Niu, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the western region totaled 1,535.4 million yuan (US$186 billion) in 1999 when the government launched to "west development" strategy, accounting for 17.5 percent of the national total.

Five years had passed, the GDP of the western region rose to 2,295.5 billion yuan (US$277 billion), however, its ratio in the national total dropped to 16.9 percent.

"This shows the fact that the gap between east and west goes on widened gradually," said Niu, who also serves as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the top legislature of China, the National People's Congress (NPC).

The widening gap between China's east and west goes against the nationwide endeavor to build a harmonious society, which Premier Wen Jiabao laid weight on in his government work report he delivered at the NPC annual session Saturday, Niu said.

"I hope the central government would attach great importance to this issue," he said.

According to Zhao Leji, a NPC deputy from Qinghai and Party secretary of the northwestern China province, it will take a fairly long period of time to narrow the east-west gap and achieve coordinated development of the two regions.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2005)