The Deputy Director of the Go West department of the State Development and Reform Commission, Ms Li Yingming, told a press conference last week that a series of new incentive policies would be announced later in the year to provide new momentum to the Go West campaign.

The campaign, officially started in 2000, is effectively a programme of affirmative action involving large-scale funding of a range of huge transport infrastructure projects to pave the way for more inward investment. The central government’s Rmb4,000bn stimulus package announced last November is largely focused on road, rail and waterway projects in the interior.

Ms Li said that the focus for the first decade of the Go West campaign had been in establishing three major economic zones in the interior: Chengdu-Chongqing zone, Guanzhong Yitianshui zone (in Xian and Gansu) and North Bay zone in Guangxi. The plan for the first zone is being drafted, while those for the second and third zones have already been approved by the State Council. She said that new policies would further stimulate development and ultimately improve the lives of ordinary people.