Authorities in Northeast China's Jilin Province are revving up efforts to attract more investment, seeking to boost local economic growth, according to governor Han Changfu.

Han Changfu (left), governor of Jilin Province, shakes hands with a businessman from Songyuan, a mid-west city in the province. The city has signed up 34 projects with a total investment of 26.93 billion yuan in late January, and 13.53 billion yuan will be put into use this year. He Na

Statistics show that fixed-asset investment in the province reached 280 billion yuan in 2006, and per capita investment exceeded 10,000 yuan.

Han said that the booming investment has played a key role in driving the growth of the province's gross domestic product (GDP), which was posted at 420 billion yuan last year, up 14.5 percent year-on-year. The figure is projected to grow 12 percent this year.

"Revitalization of traditional industrial bases requires brisk growth and competitive scale of investment," Han said.

"This year, we will continue to intensify efforts in investment attraction, especially in infrastructure construction, such as energy, transportation and hydropower."

Construction on 1,500 kilometers of new expressways will begin this year, said Han.

He added that investment in industry and agriculture-related water control projects is expected to rise 50 and 55 percent respectively in 2007.

"We will continue our efforts to advance industrial structure optimization and modern industrial base construction," Han said.

The provincial government will divert investment capital flow to extended industrial chains of pillar industries, including automobiles and auto components, petrochemicals, and further processing of farm products, Han said.

In addition, sectors such as pharmaceuticals, photoelectrical information, energy, metallurgy, construction materials and textiles are listed as priority industries of the province, he added.

Han said that authorities will organize business delegations to economically advanced regions in China, such as Beijing, Shandong Province and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and overseas countries and regions, such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and European and American countries, in search of strategic investors.

Leading industrial players are their key targets, he added.

More than 2,580 investment projects with more than 30 million yuan of investment value each are expected, according to Han.

The authorities will capitalize on every possible opportunity to present the image of the province, hoping to expand its publicity and offer more information to potential investors from home and abroad, Han said.

As the sixth Asian Winter Games are kicked off on Sunday in Changchun, the provincial capital, attention from around the world will again be focused on Jilin Province.

"Hosting the leading sport event will help introduce the friendly environment of our province to the world," he said.

With increasing inflows of investment into the Northeast frontier province, more jobs are created and residents' income revenues grow substantially.

Han noted that urban residents' per capita deposable income is projected to increase 10 percent, while rural residents' per capita net income is expected to grow at least 6 percent in 2007.

(China Daily 01/31/2007 page14)