金融英语阅读：China to Develop West River Economic Belt
China has completed the first draft of a plan for the economic development of the West River and will present the final plan in October, according to a person involved in the drafting process.The West River is the western tributary of the Pearl River and is regarded by local economic planners a golden waterway connecting the southern provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Guangdong.
Under the plan, pilot development zones will be built in areas through which the river passes, with the zones acting as bases for industrial transfers from the developed Pearl River Delta region.
Officials from Guangxi’s provincial government, who are actively promoting the plan, are compiling seven implementation plans, including comprehensive transportation and logistics systems, urban and rural development and the utilization of water resources.
The officials regard the construction of comprehensive transportation systems as a high priority.
Zhou Yi, director of the regional research institute at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, told the 21st Century Business Herald that the development of the West River is dependent on the construction of infrastructure along the waterway.
Officials from Guangxi in April announced plans to raise the transportation capacity of 1,480 km of inland waterway channels connecting Nanning, Guigang, Wuzhou, Baise, Laibin, Liuzhou and Chongzuo to over 1,000 tons before 2020.
Work will begin on infrastructure construction in the next phase of development, while financing vehicles for the program will also be established then.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, has agreed in principle to include the West River plan in China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, which runs from 2011-2016, people with knowledge of the matter told the 21st Century Business Herald.
The whole West River has a transportation capacity equivalent to 20 railway lines, but at only one-third of the cost of building railway lines and one-tenth of that of new highways is a far cheaper option, according to the Guangxi Development and Reform Commission.
The river offers low-cost transportation channels for coal from Guizhou, phosphorous from Yunnan and aluminum from Guangxi to intensive raw material-consuming regions including Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
Officials from Guangxi and Guangdong are leading efforts for cross-provincial cooperation on the development of the West River, and have already signed several agreements regarding waterway construction.
Guangxi Academy’s Zhou said the West River is more practical than the Pearl Delta Region and the Beibu Gulf for the economic development of those two provinces.
A number of Guangdong cement and ceramics enterprises have been gradually moving to Guangxi, and the West River economic belt will accelerate this industrial transfer, the person involved in the drafting of the plan said.
On Thursday, Fuhua Group Co. Ltd. Zhuhai S.E.Z. officially changed its name to Zhu Hai Port Co. Ltd. (000507.SZ) after Zhuhai Port Holdings Group Co. Ltd. became the largest shareholder in the company.
Fuhua Group, which is principally engaged in real estate, manufacturing and trading, transferred a 16.4% stake in the company to Zhuhai Port Holdings from the asset supervision and management committee of the Zhuhai municipal people's government in May.
The restructuring is evidence of the company’s confidence that West River can become a major economic driver.
Zhuhai Municipal Government has said it will invest RMB 130 billion to build a port connecting to the river.
As the sole deepwater port along the West River, Zhuhai’s Gaolan Port has great potential to become an important coal, iron ore, oil, chemical and container shipping hub, Yang Rungao, Zhu Hai Port Co. Ltd.’s chairman of the board , told the 21st Century Business Herald.
The company plans to boost container throughput at the port by more than five-fold to three million standard containers in the next five years, Yang said.
金融英语阅读：China to Develop West River Economic Belt
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