China will launch a new strategy of "developing the central region" within this year following its endeavor to develop the vast western region and rejuvenate its northeast industrial base, in a hope to balance regional development in the country.

"2005 is the first year during which specific planning will be made for the new strategy," said Liu Yingjie, deputy director of Synthetical Bureau under the Policy Research Office of the State Council, "Local governments in the central region will also make their respective blueprints accordingly."

"The timing and the content of the new strategy deserve our great expectations," said Han Qide, vice chairman of Standing Committee of National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, who gave his opening remarks at the High-profile Forum on Promoting the Development of the Central Region, held in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Thursday.

Approximately 200 officials, strategists and academicians attended the forum to confer on outlining the strategy of the development of China's central region, home to about 360 million people and which covers Shanxi, Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan provinces.

High-profile think-tank researchers at the forum and sources close to the State Council said Thursday that the implementation of the new strategy will be one of the central government's major tasks for 2005.

Covering 1.02 million sq kms, or 10.7 percent of China's total land space, the central region produces 23 percent of China's total GDP. It is also in a geographical location which links China 's west and east parts and, north and south parts.

As China's major grain producers, the provinces in central region have been left behind the country's economic boom during recent years with a widening gap between the region and the economically developed eastern coastal areas, even backward when comparing with the western region.

A research report on China's medium and long-term development plan made by the Ministry of Science and Technology shows that the per capita GDP in central China was 88 percent of the national average for 1988, the ratio dropped to 83 percent in 1990 and further went down to 75 percent in 2003. In terms of total GDP volume, the gap between central and eastern regions rose by six times in more than two decades.

In contrast, China's vast west and its rusty industrial belt in northeast, two regions once plagued by slow economic growth, have picked up the pace of economic expansion thanks to the country's strategies to stimulate its west and rejuvenate its northeast region.

Since the strategy of developing the central region was initiated one year ago, China's central government and provincial governments in this region have scaled up the research of the strategy's feasibility and relevant supporting policies with the help of think-tank institutions like the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Currently, the government and scholars have reached a consensus on the development of central region -- central region should catch up with the average national growth level, even the average level of developed nations in the course of development.

However, strategists acknowledged it was unrealistic and impossible for the central region to enjoy the same preferential policies regarding land use, taxation and tariffs that were given to coastal areas and special economic zones at the beginning of China's reform and opening up drive in late 1970s and early 1980s.

"The State Council will certainly learn lessons from the policy- making regarding the western development and the revival of the industrial base in northeast," said Liu, the official who works under the cabinet."

"We will be more prudent and the policies will be more thoughtful," he said, without further elaboration.

Li Chengxun, a professor with the Institute of Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said it would take at least two to three decades for the central region to catch up with the eastern coastal areas.

"The central region should make best use of its specialties and advantages to achieve development," said Li, who is also vice chairman of the Association of Development Strategy of China, " Attention should be paid to avoiding blind construction."

In response to the new strategy, Hubei province has vowed to make of its iron and steel, auto and photoelectron industries more competitive, Anhui has pledged to build itself into a manufacturing base and Henan has promised to further modernize its agricultural operations while speeding up industrialization.

Whatever happens, experts hail the new strategy as showing the Chinese government's resolve to achieve coordinated growth between different regions and spur the national economy to develop steadily for a long period of time.

They held that it is "an essential choice of China to achieve its goal of building a harmonious society."

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2005)