A conference initiated by the State Reform and Development Commission in late March concluded that the current worldwide economic crisis is creating significant problems for the Go West campaign. In Sichuan alone, 1.5m migrant workers who have returned from shut-down factories along the coast are currently unemployed. During the first two months of the year, exports declined by 55 per cent, industrial value-added by 5.7 per cent and local revenues by 35.7 per cent in the western region.

Experts said that infrastructure investment needs to be speeded up and that efforts should focus on developing the unique industries in the interior and further accelerate the pace of industrialisation to increase the purchasing power of ordinary people.