Xinjiang to boost local businesses

BEIJING - The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will provide policy support for strong and fast-growing enterprises in a program to boost the region's economic development and border trade.

One hundred industry-leading companies and another 100 with a strong business growth rate were selected for a program in late July entitling them to beneficial policies. Enterprises from electrical, construction, logistics, finance and manufacturing fields were chosen from more than 60,000 companies in the autonomous region.

Kurax Mahsut, vice-chairman of the autonomous region, said the local government will offer the 200 companies support in obtaining credit and a streamlined regulatory process in getting listed, as well as preferential policies in obtaining undeveloped land to build industrial parks.

Mahsut urged local governments to make efforts to implement the policy, so as to strengthen confidence in investing in Xinjiang.

Of the 200 enterprises, the industrial companies had a combined output of 331.8 billion yuan ($51.5 billion) in 2010, accounting for 62.1 percent of the region's total. They created an industrial added value of 155.8 billion yuan, accounting for 74 percent of all industrial sectors in the region.

The Xinjiang regional government has set a goal of helping at least 20 enterprises grow annual sales revenue to more than 10 billion yuan by 2015, five to grow to more than 50 billion yuan in annual sales revenue, and one to more than 100 billion yuan.

"The 200 enterprises should remain aware of their responsibilities as pioneers in technological innovation and advancing major projects," Mahsut said, while calling for closer cooperation and information sharing among the companies.

"Being selected for the list is an encouragement, but it also carries the obligation to develop," said Chen Qiang, general manager of the Yema International Group.

"With the help of the policy's benefits, we will intensify our foreign trade, while exploring opportunities in finance, culture and the capital market in the years to come."

The privately owned group, which originated in Altay and moved its headquarters to Urumqi in 2008, has achieved more than $2 billion in export revenue since opening in 2003 and is one of the top 100 privately owned export companies in China.

Another company, Xinjiang Mechanical Research Institute Co Ltd, which is on the list of high-growth enterprises, has successfully transformed from a State-owned institute to a listed company on the Growth Enterprise Board, and now has nationwide sales.

Zhou Weihua, chairman of the company, said he is confident in achieving 1.5 billion yuan in annual sales and becoming the top supplier of agricultural machines in China by 2015.