03/18/2003
China Daily

We all know that large and booming Chinese metropolises such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou are basking in the spotlight. What isn't so well promoted are economically underdeveloped cities which are working quietly on ways to build greater prosperity.

Mayors of some of these less well known cities revealed their development plans during the National People's Congress.

Take Panzhihua, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, one of the country's most famous iron-and-steel bases. The city is preparing for an economic restructuring, 37-year-old mayor Qin Yizhi told Xinhua News Agency.

Panzhihua is faced with the typical problems of other resource-based industrial cities in China because natural mineral deposits are running out after years of mining.

Meanwhile, the city's infrastructure is still in a poorly formed state and State-owned companies can hardly support heavy social burdens, such as schools and hospitals. But the municipal government, with a limited budget, can offer little help, said Qin.

The mayor said he had come up with many ideas for the city's sustainable development and was lobbying for capital support from the authorities.

Yan'an in western China's Shaanxi Province had achieved a "win-win" situation for its economy and ecology, said Mayor Zhang Shenian.

The city belongs to another typical category of poor Chinese cities - the Party's important bases during the wartime usually located in mountains or regions with harsh conditions.

Yan'an had fought against poverty and erosion for years, but made little progress until 1999 when the city launched large-scale ecological programmes under the support of the central government, Zhang said.

By the end of 2002, the city had turned 309,000 hectares of agricultural land into forest and improved the erosion situation of a total area of 4,260 square kilometres, Zhang said.

During the same time, the city had fostered stock, apples and vegetables as three pillar industries. The annual net income of farmers increased to 1,587 yuan (US$191) in 2002 from 1,120 yuan (US$135) in 1996.

"To turn agricultural land into forest is a 'win-win' situation because the nation's strategy could be realized only when people's interests are protected," Zhang said.

Shantou in the eastern part of Guangdong Province is not a backward city in China by any standard, but it is under pressure to catch up with its neighbouring cities in the prosperous province, said Mayor Li Chunhong.

The city is one of China's special economic zones. But the biggest problem for such cities is that their government-awarded preferential policies will eventually evaporate, on a fair and equal market, as a result of China's entry to the World Trade Organization.

Shantou hopes to attract more investment. The commitment is seen on its mayor's business card, which says: "You invest, We service; You get rich, We get developed; You make money, we levy taxes."

Shantou has planned to expand its downturn area to 1,950 square kilometres from 310 square kilometres at present and to increase the downturn population to 1.2 million from 400,000, Li said.

Shantou will grab the opportunity and become an economically strong city in eastern Guangdong, Li said.