Cooperation between eastern and western China has expanded and projects now involve more capital and are more technologically advanced, economists said recently at an internal trade fair.
As the Sixth Investment and Trade Fair for Cooperation Between Eastern and Western China ended recently, Jiangsu Province of prosperous eastern China and Shaanxi Province of less-developed western China signed another cooperation agreement, bringing the total investment and trade volume between the two provinces to two billion yuan.
Economists said that the provinces of Jiangsu and Shaanxi complement each other very well in the economic field leading to well-developed economic cooperation.
The economists also said the close relationship between Jiangsu and Shaanxi reflected a "honeymoon" relationship between eastern and western China amidst China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its implementation of the western development strategy.
Western China was backward in Chinese eyes. But since China implemented the western development strategy in the late 1990s, the western region has attracted the attention of business people from eastern China with its cheap labor force rich natural resources and potential huge market.
Since then, thousands of business people began to enter the west to start up their business.
Officials from Jiangsu and Shaanxi said at the fair that to speed up the development of western region offers a big opportunity for the country's eastern area to gain new momentum.
The coastal province of Shandong brought more than 1,200 projects to the fair, seeking cooperation partners in the western region.
Fujian Province, also in east China, showed its new products in the fields of electronics, light industry and food at the fair.
While the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China organized over 150 local enterprises to attend the fair in a bid to seek cooperation opportunities.
Beijing and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region reached an agreement to jointly participate in a power plant construction project with a total investment of 3.87 billion yuan to help
Beijing better hold the 2008 Olympic Games.
With China's accession to the WTO, the western region of China has become a huge potential market not only for eastern China but for the rest of the world.
Facing the fierce competition from foreign counterparts, enterprises of eastern China are now taking steps in introducing advanced technology and management expertise to western China so that they could win over more market shares in advance.
Economists said that to combine the eastern China's capital, technology and management experience with western China's rich natural resources and huge market will surely add new momentum to the country's economy.
