The Three Gorges Reservoir Region, including 15 counties and districts in West China's Chongqing municipality, is facing a great opportunity for economic development, according to a recent plan made by the municipal government.

The plan aims to tap the region's potential and unique advantages and achieve all-round economic and social development in the coming five years:

An industrial system, featuring local resources, will be established, with each county/district having two or three pillar industries. And gross domestic product of the region is expected to be doubled after the completion of the industrial system.

Most of the migrants including the rural surplus labour force have been promised jobs. The migrants' average income will increase by eight per cent each year, while the annual unemployment rate will fall by one percentage point.

Senior high school education will generally be spread, with 85 per cent of junior high school graduates gaining access to a senior high school education. The vocational training system will be completed to improve the migrants' employment opportunities.

The region's ecological environment will achieve a remarkable improvement, with water quality in the Yangtze River's Chongqing section reaching the national second or third level and the forest coverage rate reaching 40 per cent.

The Three Gorges emigration job will be completed by 2008 and the water level in the reservoir will rise to 156 metres after the flood season in 2006.

According to the plan, the Three Gorges Reservoir Region will become a well-off society, with per capita GDP reaching US$5,300 in 2020.

To achieve this goal, the municipal government will make a big investment in the region to promote industrial development, especially in the fields of tourism, chemical industry, water projects and energy resources.

In the coming 15 years, the government will implement 279 projects in the region, with a total investment of more than 470 billion yuan (US$59 billion).

Tourism and chemical industry projects, both key development fields, will take up 30 per cent of the number of projects.

For example, four major projects, the Chongqing-Sichuan-Guizhou Tourism Triangle, the Wushan-Fengjie-Fengxi Tourism Triangle, the Wujiang Gallery and High-Dam-Great-Lake Scenic Spot infrastructure construction will receive an investment of more than 4 billion yuan (US$500 million).

A project with an annual methanol output of 850,000 tons will be implemented, creating considerable employment opportunities for locals.

To raise the employment rate, the municipal government has decided to extend special support to 55 key enterprises, which is expected to serve as a stimulus to the growth of the local economy and the expansion of employment.

By 2010, 132,500 people including 43,500 migrants will find jobs in the key enterprises.

Special support will also be given to eight counties with the most underdeveloped industrial foundations and the heaviest task of emigration, including Fuling, Fengdu, Zhongxian, Wanzhou, Kaixian, Yunyang, Fengjie and Wushan.

Agriculture

Located on the bank of the Yangtze River and subtropical region, with abundant rainfall and sunshine, the region has unique advantages in developing modern agriculture.

According to the plan, the region will form three one-million-mu (66,700 hectares) agricultural belts, including an Orange Belt in Zhongxian, Wanzhou, Jiangjin, Fengjie and Kaixian counties, a Chinese Medicine Material Belt in Wuling Mountain and Daba Mountain and a Hot Pickled Mustard Tuber Belt in Fuling, Wanzhou and Fengdu counties.

The region will also promote the agricultural products processing industry as an important means of stimulating the modern agricultural system, providing employment opportunities and increasing residents' income.

With investment from several major State-owned and foreign-funded enterprises, the region aims to establish China's biggest orange processing base in the region.

Processing of Chinese medicine materials and the region's local products such as pigs, grain, silk, hemp, spice crops and bamboo shoots will also receive governmental support.

The region, which has exported 3 million of its 6.83 million rural labourers, will export more of its rural labour force surplus in the future and provide them with better vocational training.

Opportunities

Besides agricultural and mineral resources, which are apparent advantages of economic development, the Three Gorges Reservoir Region has many potential advantages to capitalize on.

With good insight, these advantages will be used to develop new industries with bright prospects. As a matter of fact, the region has succeeded in several cases.

The revival of the water transportation industry stimulated by roll-on-roll-off ships is a good example.

The Yangtze River, with a length of more than 6,300 kilometres, is the world's third longest river and China's "golden water passage."

With the development of railways and highways in the region, the value of the river seemed to be gradually reduced and ignored.

How to take full advantage of the mighty river running through the region has always been a challenging question.

In 2000, seeing trucks running on bumpy roads along the Three Gorges, a clever private ship owner surnamed Xiang transformed his freight ship into one that trucks can roll-on and roll-off.

Xiang had six trucks on his ship and carried them to Yichang on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, bypassing the bumpy highway section.

His business soon thrived and was followed by many other ship owners, as the cost of water transportation, less than 3 yuan (US$0.375) per 100 ton-kilometres, is much lower than that of highway transportation, more than 60 yuan (US$7.5) per 100 ton-kilometres.

"At present, roll-on-roll-off ships have become the most important river transportation means in the Yangtze River's section between Chongqing and Yichang in Hubei Province," said Ran Ming, an official with Wanzhou Harbour Administration.

"The latest type of the roll-on-roll-off ships can carry 60 trucks at a time," Ran said.

Ran said more than 8,000 people are engaged in the business, with 127 ships running on the river.

The ships carry 320,000 trucks every year, with an annual production value of more than 1 billion yuan (US$125 million).

The success of the Tiandi Medicine Company in Zhongxian County is another example.

The Shenzhen-based Nanfang Tongzheng Investment Company discovered in the region two valuable wild plants, wild garlic and yews, both of which were good medicine material in the world market in 2003.

With an investment of more than 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million), the company has established two big medicine production lines in the county, employing more than 5,000 people and contributing tax of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million) yuan each year.

The company is now planning to establish a compound fertilizer plant in the county to make full use of fruit peels, silt and garbage, with an investment of 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million).

(China Daily 11/08/2006 page12)