Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where the economy is characterized by its geographic features, will further enhance its economic and trade development during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) period.
One of the efforts to boost economic and trade development is the first China (Ningxia) International Halal Food and Ethnic Commodities Festival and the Ningxia Investment and Trade Fair.
The fair, which will promote halal food, also known as Muslim food, and commodities with Hui ethnic features, is being held from today to August 28 in Yinchuan, Ningxia's capital.
As one of the five autonomous regions in the country, Ningxia has a population of about 5.96 million, of which about 35 per cent belong to the Hui ethnic people.
Traditionally, Ningxia is a region mainly featuring agricultural production, with farmland totalling 1.26 million hectares.
Ningxia is at the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, neighbouring Shaanxi to the east, Inner Mongolia to the north and Gansu to the south.
Thanks to plenty of irrigation water from the Yellow River, Ningxia is well known for rice, corn, potato and various melon, fruits and vegetables.
An ideal area for stockbreeding development, the region is also one of the 10 pasturing areas in the country, with natural grassland of more than 2.6 million hectares.
In addition, Ningxia is one of the important bases for pashm and medlar products.
As a result, the region will further enhance its agricultural development in terms of medlar, mild and Muslim beef and mutton and potato.
In addition to agriculture, Ningxia is also well known for its bounteous mineral resources, with more than 50 mineral categories having been discovered so far.
The proven coal reserve hits 31 billion tons in the region.
The East Ningxia Coal Mine, which has been listed as one of the 13 large-scale pilot mines in the country, has so far explored 27 billion tons of coal.
Besides coal, Ningxia also has vast amounts of petroleum, gypsum and natural gas.
Ningxia has seen rapid development in many sectors in the past five years since the country began implementing the "Western Development Programme."
In infrastructure development, the region has upgraded its road and railway network and also opened flights to major cities in the country.
The region has also established economic and trade ties with more than 100 countries and regions in the world.
It saw foreign and domestic investment totalling 15.4 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) last year, the first time its investment has reached over 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in its history.
The Ningxia regional government has also mapped out a series of preferential policies for investors.
For example, all the newly invested enterprises will be exempted from enterprise income taxes in the first three years after their establishment.
The local government also compiled a handbook, collecting a great number of preferential investment projects for investors' reference.
These projects are mainly involved in environmental protection, such as projects on converting land into forestry and pasture, or grain for green projects.
At the first China (Ningxia) International Halal Food and Ethnic Commodities Festival and Ningxia Investment and Trade Fair, the Ningxia government hopes that the event will also help enhance its energy, chemical, new material and agricultural development over the next five years.
The region will also focus on building the East Ningxia Energy and Chemicals Base, New Material Base and Characterized Agricultural Processing Base during the period.
The East Ningxia Energy and Chemicals Base aims to have comprehensive development of coal, electricity, chemical, building materials and environmental protection projects, expecting to build it into a major supplier of energy and chemical products in the country.
Ningxia will also develop itself into a production and research centre for new materials, such as tantalum, columbium, beryllium and carbon.
In terms of agricultural product processing, the region will build the largest medlar processing centre in the country and also build it into an important base for dairy farming, Muslim beef and mutton, potato processing and biological pharmaceuticals. |
