China's "go west" strategy and policy to develop economic
cooperation with its neighbors will help forge trade ties with the
Central Asian countries, a senior commerce official said
yesterday.
"Under the western development strategy, China is to improve the
investment climate, open more sectors in the region to foreign
investment and encourage more domestic firms to go abroad to carry
out economic and technological cooperation with Central Asian
nations," said Yi Xiaozhun, vice-minister of commerce.
Yi made the remarks yesterday at the two-day Central Asia
Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Business Development Forum,
which ends today.
But the vice-minister did not spell out specific sectors that
the Chinese Government will liberalize in the western region.
Initiated by the Asian Development Bank in 1997, the CAREC
program aims to improve living standards and reduce poverty in its
member states through efficient and effective regional economic
collaboration.
CAREC currently groups eight countries China, Afghanistan,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan.
"And China's policy of being active in economic and technical
cooperation with its neighbors, which was endorsed in the country's
11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), will also
contribute to develop economic and trade ties with other CAREC
member states," Yi said yesterday.
"The implementation of the two strategies will not only promote
economic growth in western China," Yi said, "but it will also bring
about infinite business opportunities to China's neighboring
countries in Central Asia."
Trade volume between China and other CAREC member countries has
surged nearly 10-fold from US$1 billion in 1997, when the CAREC
initiative was established, to US$9.8 billion in 2005, according to
Yi.
Maintaining the strong growth momentum, the figure has amounted
to US$8.4 billion in the first eight months of this year, jumping
44 per cent from a year earlier, Yi said.
"At the same time, China's outward investment in other CAREC
member countries is also expanding rapidly, with the real
investment value totaling more than US$7 billion so far," the
vice-minister said at the forum.
Under CAREC, China has already been active in carrying out road
construction, coordinating cross-border transport regulations and
discussing power trading with other member countries.
China is also considering establishing rail links with
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
"The Chinese Government will give continuous attention to
Central Asian regional economic cooperation and commit itself to
facilitate the creation of a more convenient and open business
environment within the region," Yi said.
The CAREC Business Forum is part of the 5th Ministerial
Conference on CAREC, which runs from October 18 to 20 in Urumqi,
the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
(China Daily October 17, 2006)