Two new economic development zones in China have recent been opened for more construction. The State Council, or China’s Cabinet, has unveiled guidelines allowing these areas in the western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to be further developed.
The specific zones including the Kashgar and Korgas economic development zones in western and southern Xinjiang will receive fiscal subsidies and tax preferences to help with construction in these areas.
The goal is for the central government to help these zones to develop as regional hubs for China’s opening up to other Asian countries as well as to Eastern Europe.
The plan is for the central government to offer a certain financial subsidy each year from 2011 through 2015. They will exempt qualified enterprises from business income taxes for five years and they will subsidize fixed-asset investments while offering government loans.
The government will also focus on the construction of the China-Kyrghyzstan-Uzbekistan railway and the China-Pakistan railway to facilitate this regional growth.