Despite the recent economic slowdown, provinces in Northeast China have still made remarkable progress under the revitalization program initiated in 2003, a senior official at the
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said on Monday.
'In the face of the recent difficulties and challenges in Northeast China, the central government will further enhance its support for the region, offering more favorable policies to help the local economy to cope with the downward pressure and speed up the overall revitalization of local industries,' Li Pumin, secretary-general of the NDRC, the country's top economic planner, said at a press conference in Beijing.
Li also mentioned that the NDRC is currently working with relevant authorities to study and draft new plans for revitalization of Northeast China's industrial base.
The three provinces in Northeast China have seen their local GDP growth fall below the national average since 2014, with Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces reporting year-on-year growth rates of 2.6 percent, 6.1 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively, for the first half of this year.
The data ranked the three provinces as the worst performers among all provincial-level regions in the country in terms of economic growth, which has aroused widespread concerns over the local economy in Northeast China.
Some have asked whether the revitalization strategy initiated by the central government in 2003 has been a failure, but Li pointed out that the recent economic slowdown and challenges do not necessarily mean that Northeast China has not seen improvements.
According to Li, the region has still seen remarkable achievements in terms of structural adjustment, economic and social development, and reform and opening-up, thanks to the revitalization strategy.
Zhou Jianping, head of the NDRC's Department of Northeast Revitalization, also said at Monday's press conference that despite the downward pressure brought by the world economic downturn, Northeast China remains a strategically important industrial base for the country.
'There are still a lot of important heavy equipment enterprises in the region, such as Shenyang Machine Tool Co and China First Heavy Industries, which are considered the key foundation of China's economic development,' Zhou said.
'There's no need to over-exaggerate the northeast recession story. GDP growth is just one measurement, and some other indicators still show that the local economy is seeing sound development,' Jiang Wei, a professor with the School of Economics at Shenyang University, told the Global Times on Monday.
Although GDP growth in the three northeastern provinces was well below the national average, local GDP per capita fared much better during the same period, outperforming many regions across China. For instance, Liaoning and Jilin provinces reported GDP per capita of $10,614 and $8,166 in 2014, well above the national average of $7,576, Jiang noted.
He also cited other indicators reflecting the region's improving industrial structure. The local services sector has been growing steadily over the past decade, and the private sector has also enjoyed robust growth.
Another major concern over the region comes from the fall in its population, which some say may result in a decline in labor resources and in consumption.
Northeast China recorded a net outflow of 1.8 million people during the decade ending in 2010, according to data from the Sixth National Population Census in 2010 and the Fifth National Population Census in 2000.
While Jiang said there is no direct relationship between population loss and regional economic growth, Zhou from the NDRC acknowledged that there has been a departure of middle- and high-level talent from the region. But Zhou said efforts would be made to entice such people back to the region.
'The government needs to create a favorable environment to encourage entrepreneurship in the local society,' Zhao Xiao, a professor with the University of Science and Technology Beijing, told the Global Times on Monday. 'Only then can talent be drawn to the region to boost the local economy.'
