"Central rise" is a term increasingly used to refer to the
development of the country's inland provinces.
In March 2004, Premier Wen
Jiabao spoke of "promoting the rise of central China" in his
annual government working report to the plenary session of the
National People's Congress (NPC).
In early December, this was repeated at the Central Economic
Working Conference. The two mentions sent a message that the
government is attaching great importance to balanced development of
regional economies.
The central region includes the five neighboring provinces of Hubei,
Hunan,
Henan,
Anhui
and Jiangxi.
It plays an important role in the national economy, with 8.8
percent of China's land area, 25.7 percent of its population and
producing 18.22 percent of its GDP.
These provinces have lagged behind the rest of the country in
terms of development, partly because other regions have tended to
be prioritized. Eastern coastal provinces benefited from
preferential policies implemented in the early years of reform and
opening-up; the western region has been targeted for several years
by the "Western Development Drive"; and the provinces of Heilongjiang,
Jilin,
Liaoning,
the old industrial bases of the northeast, are likely to be
advantaged by the government's "rejuvenating the northeast"
strategy.
In June, Wen convened a meeting on the macroeconomic situation
of the region in Wuhan, capital of Hubei. He summarized the overall
characteristics of the provinces and raised guidelines and specific
requirements for their development.
Central China is an important grain base, and has some of the
country's largest iron and steel manufacturers and the largest
manufactures of middle-sized automobiles, heavy machine tools and
packaging machinery. Its power, metallurgy, machinery, chemistry
and textile industries are not as strong as they used to be, but
the region is rich in talent. Its cities, such as Wuhan, Zhengzhou
and Changsha, contain many institutions of higher learning and
research.
Wu Shuqing, ex-president of Peking University and an
economist, said central China is in dire need of a "growth pole" to
draw the economic development of the region as a whole. He pointed
out that Hubei has considerable advantages and potential in this
regard. Wuhan has a solid industrial foundation of iron and steel,
automobile and shipbuilding and strong and nationally competitive
capacity for research and development.
Wu also said it has many prestigious universities producing a
large amount of high-caliber talent, plus it has a unique
geographical location that makes it a hub for national land and
waterway communications.
(China News Service,?translated by Chen Chao for
China.org.cn, December 29, 2004)