A worker processes solar cells for export at a photovoltaic module production company in Meishan, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on November 20, 2023. Photo: VCG

Businesses are accelerating their presence in western China as the region has shown its increasing value in ensuring supply chain stability and promoting growth of international commerce, the Global Times learned from exhibitors at the China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing.
The deepening pace of industrialization and infrastructure development, coupled with  more audacious opening-up measures, have made a large swath of western China the perfect land for investment, helping balance the development between the country's east and west regions.

In the past years, the region has become an investment hub for attracting high-end manufacturing enterprises. GE HealthCare told the Global Times at the CISCE that it has set up a production base in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province in 2023, which is its first industrial project in China's western region in nearly a decade. 

"The Chengdu base mainly produces cyclotrons that can be used in nuclear magnetic resonance," an employee surnamed Liu with GE HealthCare, told the Global Times. The precision medical industrialization base in Chengdu started operation in May.

New industrialization 

GE HealthCare and Sinopharm jointly hosted an exhibition booth at CISCE. They have cooperation in medical device manufacturing, the Global Times learned from both companies.

Honeywell has built a large-scale sustainable aviation fuel production base in Suining, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the Global Times learned from the company.

"We are currently building a world-class factory, producing sustainable aviation fuel, and we signed a contract in August and the project landed in a very short time, showcasing a particularly pragmatic business environment in Sichuan. The province is now favored by many airlines," Liu Maoshu, vice president and Asia Pacific General Manager of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies Group, said on Tuesday at the expo .

According to official data, the actual utilization of foreign investment in the western regions of China increased by 14.1 percent in 2022, which is 7.8 percentage points higher than the national average level, mirroring the increasing attraction of the region thanks to new industrialization and better infrastructure there.

The new industrialization has become a new driving force for high-quality economic development in western China. Data shows that as of August 2023, a total of 121 national demonstration bases for new industrialization have been approved in the western regions of China, accounting for 27.4 percent of the national total. 

The rapid development of local infrastructure projects has made the region more interconnected. Multiple provinces in western China have achieved county-to-county access to expressways. Aviation services now cover 92 percent of the prefecture-level administrative units and 88 percent of the population in the region.

By attracting investment and introducing advanced technologies, western China has been able to upgrade its industrial structure and enhance its competitiveness in the global market place. This has greatly improved the living standards of local people, balanced ecological development and economic growth and helped inland provinces narrow the gap with the country's better developed coastal provinces in the east. 

Balanced development 

Since its establishment 14 years ago, Chinese cotton-care product manufacturer Purcotton, a brand of Winner Medical, has purchased a total of 250,000 tons of cotton, which has helped boost the cotton planting area in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region by 53 percent and cotton output by 95 percent, Winner Medical told the Global Times at CISCE.

Much of Xinjiang is covered by the Gobi Desert - where grain can hardly be grown. Now, some areas there have been turned into oases through years of cotton cultivation, which has displayed both ecological and economic value, Winner Medical said, noting that it has been deeply involved in the cotton industrial chain and supply chain - from research and development to production and sales.

In recent years, the economic growth speed of the central and western regions in China has largely outpaced that of the eastern regions, narrowing the gap with the eastern provinces in terms of per-capita GDP, according to a report issued by the State Council in July.

In 2022, the GDP in western regions of China has totaled 25.7 trillion yuan ($3.62 trillion), accounting to 21.4 percent of the national GDP, up from the 19.6 percent in 2012, according to the report.

Additionally, China's western regions also played an important role in facilitating international cooperation. Thanks to China-Europe freight train service and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, western China becomes more connected to the world, aiding the regions to emerge as China's new economic growth lever and a stabilizer in supply chain.

Southwest China's Sichuan Province has signed a number of international clean energy cooperation projects at the CISCE. The investments totaled 1.8 billion yuan, the Global Times learned from the event organizer.

"Since Sichuan is the province with abundant water resources, broad experience in renewable energy development, and rising aspiration in playing a more active role globally, I would welcome further exploration of cooperation opportunities between the province of Sichuan and Honduras on all these fronts," Maricarmen Ortega, Representative of the Ambassador of the Republic of Honduras to China, said on Tuesday at the China (Sichuan) International Conference on the Promotion of Clean Energy, a subforum under the CISCE.