Chinese economist, Li Jingwen, said Friday that China should seize the favorable opportunity of economic globalization and utilize new Eurasian continental bridge to speed up western China's merge into the economic globalization.

In an academic paper presented to the Western Forum of China that opened Friday in Chengdu, apital of Sichuan Province, Li, who heads the Quantitative Economy Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said treating Eurasian Continental Bridge as a golden thoroughfare to the world economy would be a practical choice to help develop western China.

Li has made in-depth investigations into the subject of using the new Eurasian continental bridge to promote opening up in west China in the past years.

Formation of the new Eurasian continental bridge has helped link up interior areas of China, the Middle Asia, and Europe and start up another important trading thoroughfare linking Japan, the Republic of Korea, Southeast Asia with Eastern and Western Europe, and West, Middle and South Asia, said Li.

The new Eurasian continental bridge starts from Lianyungang Port of east China's Jiangsu Province and ends at Rotterdam of the Netherlands. It extends 4,131 kilometers in China, where 400 million Chinese live.

The areas along the China section of the bridge are the country 's most important bases of energy and raw materials. Having convenient transport and developed telecommunications conditions, these areas have great potential for development.

"Development of these areas will set an exemplary role in the exploration of the entire central and western parts of China and is a strategic step to take in advancing economic and social development of the central and western parts of China to a higher level," said the Chinese economist.

When China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO), China's cooperation with the world, especially with the neighboring countries, will increase, said Li. He added it is imperative to adjust the industrial structure in western China, and to combine development with opening-up of western China to achieve a successful campaign of developing the vast west.