China stresses western regions priority for growth

BEIJING, Aug 21 - China will bolster efforts to bring investment, loans and industry to its poorer western regions, a government meeting said, calling the decade-long "develop the west" strategy a priority in countering the global economic downturn.

The meeting convened by Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday approved a directive calling for spending plans to focus on the nation's western half, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Provinces such as Sichuan and Yunnan and the restive region of Xinjiang long fell behind the feverish growth rates of China's coastal zones and big cities.

But state investment and demand for the western region's resources, crops and energy have begun to lift growth there, and the meeting indicated "Go West" spending efforts will intensify.

"In comprehensively implementing the package of plans to counter the international financial crisis, give even higher priority to developing the west," said the official summary of the directive, reported by Xinhua late on Thursday.

"Fiscal transfers and new investment to expand domestic consumption must continue to be slanted towards the west."

Helped partly by the government's "Go West" policies and their less export-focused economies, Chinese cities in the country's interior have posted higher per-capita-income growth than Shanghai, Beijing and other richer cities in the past year.

China has been busy building infrastructure in its interior since 2000, seeking to narrow the income gap between cities along its southeastern seaboard and the rest of the country.

The meeting chaired by Premier Wen stressed that those efforts will stay a focus of spending plans. Railways, highways, airports, hydro, energy and other infrastructure projects across western provinces and regions will accelerate, according to details of the meeting.