Overseas investment to Northeast China, the country's
traditional heavy industrial base, has increased rapidly since the
beginning of the year.
The inflow of overseas investment to the three northeastern
Chinese provinces of
Liaoning,
Jilin and
Heilongjiang amounted to a record high of US$3.4 billion in the
first six months of the year, said Song Xiaowu, deputy head of the
Office for Revitalizing the Old Industrial Base in Northeast China
under the State Council.
Liaoning received US$2.24 billion of overseas investment from
January to June, up 78.18 percent from the same period last year,
according to Song, who made a special trip to Dalian, a port city
of Liaoning Province, to attend the second China International
Software and Information Service Fair held there.
Heilongjiang, also known as the country's granary, received
US$482 million in overseas investment, up 25.12 percent, and Jilin,
where the country's first automobile manufacturer --the First
Automobile Works (FAW) Factory -- is located, brought in US$682
million, up by 147.3 percent.
Lu Song, a research fellow with the Development and Research
Center with the Liaoning Provincial Government, said that factors
such as the new round of industrial structural adjustment and
upgrading in the country, the strategy of the central Chinese
government to rejuvenate the area and an improved investment
environment have all contributed to the region's fast growth.
China considers the revival of the northeast industrial base,
also known as the country's rust-belt, as its third most important
long-term strategy after the opening-up in the southeast 20 years
ago and the western development policy five years ago.
After the founding of modern China in 1949, the northeast region
contributed the country's first steel, machine tools, locomotives
and planes.
Many of the traditional industrial companies, however, have
become less competitive and some have been losing money over the
past 20 years, as China has shifted from a planned economy towards
its reform and opening-up policies.
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2004)
