The State Council, or the central Chinese government, has resolved to further implement its western development strategy through such spheres as environmental protection, basic infrastructure construction, eco-development, improvement of farmers' lives and industry structure adjustment.

According to a document publicized Monday by the State Council on acceleration of the western development, the government spoke highly of the substantial achievements made in the past four years since the strategy was initiated in the year 2000 to help the relatively backward western regions catch up with the affluent eastern coastal regions.

The strategy has been backed up by a series of preferential policies for the development of the western regions, including more investment, preferential tax rates and flexible policies.

In 2003, China invested approximately 200 billion yuan (24.3 billion US dollars) in infrastructure projects in the western regions, occupying 55.2 percent of its total annual investment in the region. Eight key projects were completed last year, including three road construction projects, an airport extension in Shaanxi province and four major west-east electricity transmission projects.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of western areas grew 8.5 percent in 2000, 8.7 percent in 2001, 9.9 percent in 2002 and 11.2percent in 2003, while in 1999, its GDP only increased 7.2 percent, official statistics show.

"As a long-term, arduous historical task, the development in the western region still faces a host of contradictions and problems ahead," the document says, calling for continuous efforts in this field.

Compared with other parts of China, the vast western area is quite slow in economic development. The region, which occupies two thirds of the country's territory land and boasts one third of the total population, only shares less than one fifth of China's economy.

Although improvements have been scored to some extent in the region's biological environment, there is still serious soil erosion with a serious water shortage; and education and health work were stagnant and, on top of this, there is a shortage of qualified personnel. And the solution of these problems and contradictions call for urgency, as well as arduous and long-term and unremitting efforts.

The document lists concrete environmental protection measures for the region, including the return of farmland to forests and pastures as well as industrial pollution prevention and control, and it also underscores the importance of infrastructure construction, increasing farmers' income and going all out to develop energy, mining, machine building, tourism, agriculture with typical local characteristics, traditional Chinese medicine processing and other industries with comparative advantages.

Meanwhile, the document urges preferential development of a group of central cities as regional centers so as to give scope to their radiating role, synchronous progress in education, science and technology, culture and public health, and the in-depth reform of economic systems.

The document also promises a long-term and stable financial support for developing western areas and sufficient supply of talented people, demanding a good legal environment and fostering and building up honest government image in the region.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2004)