Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, is positioned to be a logistics center in the coming years, sources with the provincial government said.

The sources said the government turned a green light to long-brewed guidelines, which aimed to turn Zhengzhou into an important modern logistics center in China in the upcoming 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010).

The guidelines set short-term development goals for Zhengzhou. For instance, by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan, Zhengzhou should be China's chief modern logistics center; added value generated from modern logistics should account for six percent of the city's gross domestic product; and a good logistics network among major cities in Henan should come into shape, with Zhengzhou as its center.

As a major inland China transportation hub, Henan has developed a system composed of railways and highways, with civil aviation and waterways as supplemental modes.

Zhengzhou is one of the most important railway transportation hubs in in Asia, the sources said. Its logistics industry would focus on the development of the Central Plain International Logistics Zone, located along the Beijing-Zhuhai Freeway, one of the country's most important freeways linking the Chinese capital to southern China's booming city of Zhuhai.

For the zone development, seven big projects have been in the making, including the logistics hub for China's trunk highways, Zhengzhou international cargo aviation center, construction of a new railway center for container transportation with an investment of 540 million yuan (about 66.6 million US dollars), Zhengzhou export industrial zone and Henan Import Bonded Zone.

Besides Zhengzhou, Henan will also build five logistics subcenters, including Luoyang, Shangqiu, Anyang, Nanyang and Xinyang.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2005)