Provincial program striving for national status
|
(Left): Party Secretary of the Liaoning provincial Committee Zhang Wenyue (center) visits the coastal economic development zone in Liaoning in January. (Right): Acting Governor of Liaoning province Chen Zhenggao (center) inspects Changxing Island Harbor Industrial Zone in Dalian on January 12 as local officials explain a project under construction funded by South Korea's STX Group. |
Liaoning, one of the three old industrial bases in Northeast China, is keen to have its "Five Points Along One Line" Coastal Economic Belt strategy included in the country's development strategy and acquire the national development status.
Once included in the State development strategy, it hopes to be backed by more preferential policies, attracting more investments, sources with the local government said.
The implementation of the "Five Points Along One Line" coastal development strategy will have a positive impact on revitalizing the traditional industrial bases and further exploring development space of the province.
An important national industrial base established during the First Five-Year Plan period (1953-57), Liaoning boasts a solid industrial foundation. However, its limited natural resources such as coal, nonferrous metal, arable land, water and forests, call for a scientific approach for further growth. The coastal development strategy meets this need.
As Liaoning enjoys a strategic location, it has a big role to play in the economic development of the Bohai Economic Zone and of Northeast Asia.
Experts believe it also shoulders the responsibility to build an international shipping center in Northeast Asia.
Interacting with the Binhai New Area in Tianjin, another development zone in the Bohai Bay Rim, the coastal economic belt in Liaoning can also drive the economic growth in the vicinity via its access to the sea.
The "Five Points Along One Line" strategy emphasizes the need to develop Liaoning and the Bohai Bay in a sustainable way.
The local authorities have made it clear that economic growth, though given priority, cannot be achieved at the cost of environmental deterioration.
From the perspective of long-term development, the authorities will detail a series of regulations to create and maintain an investment climate that encourages rational use of resources.
Liaoning is also determined to foster an industrial cluster combining industries in the high-tech, ecology, agriculture as well as tourism and leisure sectors.
|
A partial view of a border economic zone along the Yalu River in Dandong |
(China Daily 03/05/2008 page25)
