By Julia Gu

Feb. 27 – China’s State Council announced last week that it has approved the 12th Five-Year Plan for Further Promoting the Economy of the Western Regions (“the Plan”), a step that is aimed at narrowing the gap between the country’s wealthy coastal provinces and its under-developed western regions.

Specifically, the Plan will target 12 provinces: Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Guizhou and Yunnan.

The seven major development goals set by China’s central government are as follows:

• Increasing economic growth;
• Expanding infrastructure construction;
• Improving the ecological environment;
• Providing better public services;
• Developing and strengthening local industries;
• Elevating people’s living standards; and
• Reforming and opening up the region. Continue reading →