The dilemma was highlighted again at the ongoing West Forum of China, which puts "scientific development" at the top of its agenda.

"Scientific development is not simply a slogan and we are taking concrete steps," said Du Ping, department director with the Office of the Leading Group for Western Region Development of the State Council.

He said measures should be in line with China's overall situation.

Over the past 25 years, China's economy has grown at an average annual rate of about 9 per cent. Reckless pursuit of economic growth without considering the environmental costs, however, has resulted in serious environment degradation in some parts of the country, especially in the western region.

Last year, the government began to embrace the concept of "scientific development" - the co-ordinated development of the economy, society and the environment.

"In fact, we have been implementing the ideology since 1999, when the national strategy for western development came into force," said Du.

In previous years, the country made more efforts in the region on environment protection and poverty-relief. One focus has also been given to increasing farmers' incomes, speeding up agricultural and rural development, returning farmland to forest and pasture, and building better infrastructure.

Environment at the core

To protect the west's fragile ecological system, China will have changed 7.86 million hectares of farmland back to woodland and planted trees on 11.33 million hectares of bare hills and land by the end of this year.

But there are still challenges in how to resolve soil and ground water pollution in the area, which is the source of most of China's big rivers.

Efforts are being made to restrain industrial development and cut down on the use of resources there. But protecting the environment in the west has mainly been prompted by the developed regions, while the west itself still has to make great efforts to develop its economy.

"Environmental equity is also an important ingredient of a healthy western development. Every citizen is entitled to a clean environment, which is defined by the most basic laws and regulations," said Zhang Jianyu, visiting scholar with Tsinghua University.

Zhang, also head of the Beijing office of the US-based non-government organization Environmentaldefence, urged that under no circumstances should compromises be made between long-term protection and short-term economic gain.

Li Zibin, deputy director of the Office of the Leading Group, said a scientific development concept must be adopted in western regions.

That requires deeper economic restructuring, readjustment of the government's functions and exertion of the market mechanism.

The traditional model of industrial development, which is labour- and resource-intensive, should be upgraded, with an expected boom of more technology-based and service businesses coming soon.

"If we do not change the current growth model, which is marked by aggressive consumption of resources, and ease the pressure on the environment from industrialization and urbanization, development in the west cannot be sustained," said Li.

National strategy

China initiated the western development strategy in 1999 to help the relatively backward western areas catch up with the better-off eastern counterparts. The strategy is supported by a series of preferential policies, including more investment, preferential tax rates and flexible policies. In 2003, China invested approximately 200 billion yuan (US$24.3 billion) in infrastructure projects there, occupying 55.2 per cent of its total annual investment in the region.

The gross domestic product (GDP) in the area grew rapidly under the strategy, from 7.2 per cent in 1999 to 11.2 per cent in 2003.

Key projects have also been strengthened. In the first half of this year, the west-to-east electricity transmission project installed 600,000 kilowatts of power-generating capacity and extended transmission lines by 2,400 kilometres.

The pipeline for transmitting natural gas from the west to the east was completed ahead of schedule. Traffic highways were extended by about 6,000 kilometres. Nearly 60 per cent of the water conservation projects planned have been completed.

By the end of August, the main track of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway had been extended by 232.6 kilometres.

"But as a long-term, arduous historical task, development there still faces a host of contradictions and problems ahead," said Li.

The region, which occupies two thirds of the country's territory and has a third of China's population, shares less than a fifth of China's economy.

Although improvements have been made to some extent in the region's biological environment, there is still serious soil erosion and water shortages; work in education and health care is stagnant and on top of everything, there is a shortage of qualified personnel. Solutions to these problems and contradictions call for urgency and unremitting effort.

With China's other national strategy being launched last year, to rejuvenate the Northeast industrial belt, there were fears that the west would be neglected.

But Premier Wen Jiabao later pointed out that the strategy would still be one of China's top priorities, while affirming the achievements made so far in the region.

Wen urged all-around and co-ordinated work, asking governments at all levels to continue to speed up economic and social development there.

Continuous efforts

In the first half of this year, the State Council issued a document to identify major tasks for western development in the years to come.

The document lists concrete environmental protection measures, including reconverting farmland to forests and pasture as well as industrial pollution prevention and control. It also underscores the importance of building infrastructure, increasing farmers' incomes and going all out to develop energy, mining, machine-building, tourism and agriculture with local characteristics, traditional Chinese medicine processing and other industries.

Last month, the government said China will invest 80 billion yuan (US$9.6 billion) in another 10 key projects in the region by the end of the year.

The strategy also won support from the National People's Congress.

Li Zibin said China is drafting a law regulating measures and activities in developing the region, both in economic and social aspects. China's top legislative body has included the draft in its five-year law-making plan.

"We need to have a law regulating policies, strategies, key missions and other issues concerning western region's development," said Li.