Economic zones refuel western development

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-22 10:13

"Since mid-September, all the trucks transporting our products have been fully-loaded, queuing in a long line outside our company," said Yang Jinfu, manager of a private food oil company.

Yang's company set up a factory at Qinzhou Port Bonded Zone in southwestern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region seven months ago.

"At first, we came here to look for sales market. However, such a huge market potential in the western region inspired us to set up a factory here," Yang added.

Yang's company was headquartered in Southeast China's Fujian province where export-oriented economy has been heavily stricken by the shrinking foreign order amid the global financial crisis.

China's vast western region, however, has taken the chance to actively attract investment and explore new domestic markets by speeding up its own infrastructure construction.

After ten years of China's strategy to develop its western region, economic zones in the west become an emerging engine that drives China's economy.

The Beibu Gulf Economic Zone in Guangxi, where Qinzhou Port Bonded Zone locates, is one of the three economic zones in China's western region.

As the only river estuary to sea in China's western region, the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone has witnessed a rapid construction development since the plan for Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone Development was approved by the central government in January 2008.

"When Qinzhou Port Bonded Zone opened five years ago, we couldn't find it on a world nautical chart," said Yang Lizhong, general manager of Qinzhou Oriental Resources Co ltd. "Foreign ships were reluctant to come here, the municipal government had to pay $120,000 to buy a foreign ship to unload here."

Now the Qinzhou Port has become an important maritime hub in the Beibu Gulf with an annual throughput of more than 52 million tons, and has formed a chain of ports in the Beibu Gulf with neighboring Beihai city's Tieshan Port and Fangcheng Port.

"China's western region has been closely connected to the world," Yang said. Improving communication and favorable geographical location added appeal to the Beibu Gulf area, which saw increasing inflow of investment and logistics flow to meet local growing consumption.

For example, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi have seen an increase of oil consumption of at least 10 percent per year, while Guangxi alone produces 800,000 tons of oil annually, meeting a small proportion of the overall demand.

A Petro China refinery project with an annual capacity of 10 million tons has settled down in the Qinzhou Port Economic Development Zone. The 20-billion-yuan ($3 billion) project, upon completion in 2010, will not only help China's southwestern region get rid of oil shortage, but also bring downstream industries with a total investment of more than 78 billion yuan ($11.5 billion) to settle down in the Beibu Gulf region.

"The largest petrochemical base in Southwest China will emerge here, changing the whole economic structure of Guangxi," said Huang Yi, chief of Qinzhou's Business Promotion Bureau.

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