That's according to a top official, who says the west should be developed in line with the conditions of the market economy.

"It's utterly unnecessary for us to repeat what we did more than 20 years ago because we have established a better environment for economic development," said Li Zibin, a Guangdong deputy to the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) and deputy director of the new Office for Western Development under the State Council.

Li, also vice-minister of the State Development Planning Commission, said the establishment of special economic zones such as in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen in the early 1980s were under "given historical conditions."

"Things have changed a lot since then. We now know more about how to take advantage of economic rules to spur our economic growth than we did under a planned economy," said the former mayor of Shenzhen.

He stressed that the country's "surprisingly fast development" in building the socialist market economy, together with the introduction of some special policies to develop the western regions, will ensure the final success of the western development campaign.

The Chinese Government launched it in 1999 to bridge the widening gap between its relatively undeveloped western regions and wealthy coastal areas.

Western China, which spans some 56 percent of the nation's territory and accounts for 50 percent of its mineral resources, has not enjoyed the same degree of prosperity as eastern China since the country launched its opening-up bid in 1979. Despite its wealth of natural resources, the inland region has a weak industrial foundation.

Premier Zhu Rongji gave prominence to the campaign while unveiling the outline for the county's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) at the ongoing session of the Ninth NPC on Monday.

Li's office is in charge of implementing the central government's western development strategy. Zeng Peiyan, minister of the State Development Planning Commission, heads the Office for Western Development, which is also the main drafter of policies for western development.

Li stressed the importance of creating a sound environment for western development through legislation, which should guarantee a solid implementation of the strategy by governments at all levels.

"Having legislation will help the western region achieve sustainable development and prevent environmental pollution and ecological deterioration, which is a hard-won lesson from the experience of eastern provinces," Li said.

He revealed that the NPC, China's top legislative body, the Legal Affairs Office of the State Council and his own office are studying the possibility of making laws to legalize the strategy for developing the western region.

Li added that expectations about the "go west" strategy should be realistic. "It would be impractical to expect the strategy to root out the disparity between eastern and western China immediately," he said.

"We should do our best to curb a further widening of the gap and make sure the disparity does not affect the basic life quality of people in the western regions."

He said a different pace of economic development in western and eastern regions, as a result of different natural and geographical conditions, will remain for a long period of time and "cannot be removed in a short time."

"It (the complete eradication of this disparity) will take the efforts of several generations," Li said.

(China Daily 03/07/2001)