Opinion
"Bridgehead" takes shape amid China's fresh westward opening-up drive
Last Updated:2012-09-03 23:33 | Xinhua
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The northwestern region of Xinjiang has been leading China's latest opening-up drive, fortifying a "bridgehead" for the country's economic and trade ties with the Eurasian nations.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday while opening the second China-Eurasia Expo at Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, that the region's geographical, cultural and resource advantages have become more prominent in the course of China's opening up to the west and along the border areas.

"Xinjiang has become the bridgehead for China's mutually beneficial cooperation with the Eurasian nations, especially the neighboring countries," he said.

Xinjiang is home to the westernmost section of the Eurasian Land Bridge, a transcontinental rail route, at the Chinese end, connecting east Asia and west Europe.

It abuts on Pakistan, Mongolia, Russia, India and four other central Asian countries with a borderline extending 5,600 km, giving it an easy access to markets in the Eurasian heartland.

SPRINGBOARD

At the ongoing expo, participants said they also believe the "bridgehead" for China's opening-up to the west has taken shape.

Some investors expressed great interest in exporting their products through the gateway of Xinjiang to central Asia.

"Yes, I believe Xinjiang is a perfect 'springboard' for our business to access the west, the central Asian areas," said Peng Jun, board chairman of a shoe company in the southwestern Sichuan Province at the expo.

"Our logistics costs will be cut by at least 20 percent if we export our products through the westward gateway of Xinjiang rather than through the sea route in the eastern coasts."

Others have already set up business in the autonomous region where they can reach out to markets in the central Asia and further west with less logistics costs.

Yiwu Business Chamber, an investment and trade organization based in the eastern Zhejiang Province, has invested 4 billion yuan (630 million U.S. dollars) to set up a logistics center in Xinjiang, exporting small commodities to Dushanbe and Kabul, and even as far as London, through cross-border highways.

One of the chamber's exhibitors told Xinhua that they have chosen Xinjiang because its geographic location and the increasing number of roads and railways.

BOOMING INFRASTRUCTURE CONSTRUCTION

The "springboard" came amid Xinjiang's massive infrastructure construction along its borders.

Seventeen state-level open ports, two international airports and extensive roads and railways link the landlocked region with its neighbours to the west, most of which share same languages and cultures with the ethnic groups densely populated in the autonomous region.

Addressing the expo's opening ceremony on Sunday, Premier Wen urged an advanced cooperation in cross-border infrastructure, including the China-Central Asia natural gas pipelines and major railway and highway projects, to accelerate the connectivity process.

Participants echoed Wen's calling, saying more roads, railways and airway routes will link Xinjiang closer to its Eurasian neighbours, bringing more trade and opportunities.

"In 2011, 73 percent of the total trade volume between Tajikistan and China came from Xinjiang," said Damdorov Kalon, Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Tajikistan in China.

"We expect promising prospect of the Xinjiang-Tajikistan economic and trade cooperation," he told a forum at the expo.

The bigger role of Xinjiang came after a change of perspectives.

"As a border region, Xinjiang is far from the central and eastern part of China," Li Jingyuan, secretary general of the Secretariat of China Eurasia Expo, told a press conference at the expo.

"But on a bigger map of Eurasia, Xinjiang is located at the geological center, being China's frontier to the west."

But some experts warned that difficulties and challenges remain for Xinjiang.

"Xinjiang needs to continue its development and further optimize its economic structure," said Shi Lan, deputy head of Institute of Central Asia Studies at Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.

"With a fast development, central Asian countries, especially Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, have seen drastic development," she said. "If Xinjiang does not catch up, they would probably turn to more attractive regions in east or central China for capital and technology cooperation."

LATEST OPENING-UP DRIVE

The ongoing six-day expo, upgraded from a 19-year-old regional trade fair in 2011, attracted several heads of states and governments, participants from 55 countries and regions and six international organizations, according to organizers.

The first expo witnessed the signing of 178 contracts from domestic enterprises to invest in Xinjiang with a total value of 185 billion yuan, according to the organizers.

The upgrading of the expo is among a swathe of China's policies, including tax exemptions and construction of special economic zones, to further open up the west over the past years.

They were mapped out in 2010, by a high-level central work conference to achieve leapfrog development and lasting stability of Xinjiang, which covers one-sixth of China' s landmass but is still lagging behind economically.

The conference came one year after Xinjiang's most deadly unrest in decades, where 197 people were killed and about 1,700 others injured in Urumqi.

Authorities blamed separatists and extremists for inciting the unrest in the autonomous region, which is vulnerable to unrest and terrorist threats. Many believed that poverty and income disparity also led to the violence.

Since the conference, Xinjiang has been stepping up its efforts to become a major gateway in China's westward opening-up, which is expected to bring ensuing prosperity.

Xinjiang's land ports have reported a nearly 20 percent year-on-year increase of the departure and arrivals in the first six months of this year, with a 7.8 percent increase in export and export of cargos.

The increases were linked to Xinjiang's 10.7 percent of GDP growth in the first half, 2.9 percentage higher than the country's average.

"The more Xinjiang opens, the more space it will have to develop," said Tang Yigai, a senior economist in Xinjiang.

WINDOWS AND PILLARS

Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, has said the opening-up efforts of Xinjiang should hinge upon the development and construction of two border towns, Kashgar and Horgos.

China's State Council, or its Cabinet, announced a plan in 2011, vowing to transform part of Kashgar and Horgos into special economic zones, two "important windows and pillars of China's opening-up to the west," to tap markets in central and south Asia, and even Europe.

They have been given an array of preferable policies, including tax exemptions, subsidized electricity and transportation, low-interest loans for infrastructure and railway construction plans.

Although the infrastructure construction of the two economic zones will not be complete until 2016, and the industries will only take shape by 2020, increasing trade volumes have already been reported.

"In the first half of this year, Horgos Special Economic Zone has reported the trade volume of over 5 billion U.S. dollars, a 75 percent growth compared with the same period last year," said Lu Min, a senior official with the zone.

"By 2015, we are expected to raise the annual trade volume to 22.8 billion U.S. dollars," he said at the expo.

Also in Horgos, a China-Kazakhstan free-trade center along the border was officially launched in April, providing cross-border trade tariff exemptions for Chinese companies and allows for duty-free purchases for visitors.

Kashgar, an ancient Silk Road town mainly inhabited by the Uygurs, is striving to build a 50-square-km economic zone, making it a regional trading hub and manufacturing center.

"By 2020, the Kashgar Economic Zone will have registered a GDP of 2.6 billion yuan, spearheading Xinjiang's leapfrog development," said Zhu Tingfeng, the economic zone's director of board of management. "That will make Kashgar a 'pearl' in west China."

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