Northeast provinces look ahead

China's northeastern rustbelt is expected to see a more rapid transition, with State-owned enterprise reform and manufacturing upgrading providing the uptick for growth in the region, economists said on Wednesday.

With several Chinese provinces having posted their GDP data for the first six months of the year, except for the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, economists are not too optimistic about a short-term growth renaissance for the region.

The three provinces were ranked in the bottom five of China's 31 provinces and regions for GDP growth in 2014 and the trend continued in the first quarter. Jilin's 5.8 percent, Heilongjiang's 4.8 percent and Liaoning's 1.9 percent are all below the nation's average 7 percent growth in the first quarter.