24.7.2001

 

QINGHAI PROVINCE（青海省）

 

Economic Indicators

	1999		2000
Economic Indicators	Value	Growth	Value	Growth
		(%, y-o-y)		(%, y-o-y)
Area (sq km)	722,300	--	722,300	--
Population (mn)	5.0	1.4	5.2 ^	1.6
Gross Domestic Product (RMB bn)	23.8	3.7 *	26.3	9.0 *
Per Capita GDP (RMB)	4,662	6.5	N/A	N/A
Disposable Income Per Capita
- urban (RMB)	4,703.4	10.9	5,170.0	9.9
- rural (RMB)	1,466.7	2.9	1,490.5	1.6
Fixed-assets Investment (RMB bn)	11.7	7.7	13.2	12.8
Added Value Output
- primary industry (RMB bn)	4.1	-2.6	3.9	-5.0
- secondary industry (RMB bn)	9.8	10.7	11.3	15.7
- tertiary industry (RMB bn)	10.0	10.9	11.2	11.5
Retail Sales (RMB bn)	7.5	6.5	8.2	9.2
Inflation (Consumer Price Index, %)	-0.5		-0.5
Exports (US$ mn)	120.0	0	140.0	16.7
- by FIEs (US$ mn)	--	--	2.0	--
Imports (US$ mn)	70.0	16.7	90.0	28.6
- by FIEs (US$ mn)	--	--	7.0	--
Foreign Direct Investment
- number of projects	15	-37.5	42	180
- contracted amount (US$ mn)	14.2	-82.0	122.3	760.3
- utilized amount (US$ mn)	4.6	--	N/A	--

Notes: * In Renminbi real terms

^ latest population census. 1999 figure was estimation based on previous survey.

Sources: China Statistical Abstract, 2001, CEIC database

 

General Background

 

Qinghai - abbreviated as Qin（青）- is situated in the western part of China at the north-east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau（青藏高原）.  The province has the largest inland salt water lake in the country － Qinghai Lake（青海湖）.  85% of the province has an average elevation of 3,000 meters above sea level.  

 

With high terrain and obstruction of mountains such as the Kunlun Mountain（昆侖山）and the Qilian Mountain（祁連山）, Qinghai has typical continental climate with an average daily temperature contrast of 10℃ to 18℃.  The average temperature is around -18℃ to -7℃ in January and 5℃to 21℃ in July.

 

The population of ethnic minorities accounts for 43% of the total.  Major groups include Tibetan（藏）, Hui（回）, Tu（土）, Salar（撒拉）, Mongolian（蒙）and Kazak（哈薩克）. 

 

The provincial capital is Xining（西寧）which is approved by the State Council in 1992 to be an inland open city, enjoying the same preferential policies as in the coastal open cities.

 

The province has abundant reserves of oil and natural gas at the Qaidam Basin（柴達木盆地）.  Qinghai Oil Field（青海油田）is one of the four largest natural gas fields in China.  In 1999, the crude oil output of Qinghai Oil Field reached 1.9 million tons, an increase of 7.9% over 1998. 

 

The province is also rich in mineral resources including nonferrous metals, rare metals, salt, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, lithium, boron and lead, of which, reserve of potassium account for 97% of the country's total. Reserve of asbestine is also the largest.

 

Qinghai is the major livestock husbandry base in China with husbandry area accounting for 90% of the province.  Major breeding animals include cattle, donkey, yak, sheep, camel and horses.  Xining wool（西寧毛）is famous at home and abroad. 

 

Infrastructure

 

Railways － Qinghai’s altitude severely limited its ability to have railways. Major railyways include: Lanzhou-Qinghai（蘭青）Railway, QingXin railway（青新鐵路: Qinghai-Xinjiang 青海－新疆）, YangXi railway（陽西鐵路: Yangpingguan-Xining 陽平關－西寧）and XiZhang railway（西張鐵路: Xining-Zhangxe 西寧－張掖）.

 

One of the symbolic project of the Great Western Development Strategy, the construction of the Qingzang Railway (青藏鐵路：青海--西藏) has just started. It will tremendously enhance communication and transportation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

 

Highways －The province’s highway network is basically composed of three highways: Qinghai- Xinjiang, Qinghai-Tibet and Gansu-Qinghai Highway. 

 

After the announcement of the Great Western Development Strategy, Qinghai is aiming to improve its highway network in large scale. In 2001, there are 20 new highway improvement projects, 8 of them are constructions of new highways. Recently, the Pingxi Expressway (平西高速公路：平家镇--西宁) the first superhighway on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, has been completed.

 

Air Transport － Golmud（格爾木）airport and Caojiabao（曹家堡）airport at Xining provide air routes to major cities in China including Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Lanzhou, Urumqi and Lhasa.

Telecommunications － Telecommunications services have made remarkable progress.  Till end-Apr 2000, there were over 100,000 mobile phone users in the province, and nearly 300,000 households have installed telephones. In 1998, the Lanzhou-Xining-Lhasa Optic Cable was constructed.

 

Electricity Supply － The existing Longyiangxia（龍羊峽）and Lijiaxia（李家峽）hydropower stations enable the province to be an important hydropower base in the north-west China.  Other large hydropower stations such as Laxiwa（拉西瓦）, and Gongboxia（公伯峽）were under construction.

 

Gas Supply － One of the key project in the Great Western Development Strategy is to deliver the natural gas of the 4 major gas reserve fields, including the Qaidam Basin Gas Reserve, to Eastern China. The first stage of the project, a new natural gas pipeline, linking Qinghai and Gansu provinces, is completed recently.  The pipeline runs 953 kilometers from Sebei Natural Gas Field in the Qaidam Basin, through Xining to Lanzhou of Gansu province.

 

Industries

 

In 2000, Qinghai’s industrial output was US$19.3 billion. Industries are mainly located at Xining, Golmud and Qaidam Basin. 

 

The large salt lake in the Qaidam basin, with its huge reserve of potassium, magnesium, lithium, natural gas and crude oil, provides the raw material for the province’s heavy industries. Major industries are oil and gas, electricity, chemical salts, nonferrous metals, metallurgy, machinery, elec­tronics, foodstuffs, leather and textiles. Both the Qinghai Aluminum Factory and Qinghai Magnesium Factory are the largest in the nation.

 

Tourism

 

In 2000, over 32,600 tourists (+59.0%) visited the province and generated total revenue of US$7 million, an increase of 75% over 1999.  Xining is a main stop on the ancient Silk Road trade route, and features nearby attractions like Taer Lamasery（塔爾寺）, Dongguan Mosque（東關清真寺）.  Other touristic sites include Qinghai Lake（青海湖）, Origins of the Yangtze and Yellow River, Mengda National Forest（孟達國家森林）,  Bird Island（鳥島）, Star Sea（星宿海）etc.

 

To further develop its tourism industry, the province is building a ring-road highway around Qinghai Lake. Also under construction are the highways to the origin of the Yellow River and to Mengda National Forest.  

 

In addition, Qinghai will co-operate with other 9 provinces and autonomous regions in establishing a tourism information network and arranging one tourism fair bi-yearly.  Concerned parties include Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces, as well as Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions. 

 

Consumer Market

 

Retail sales of consumer goods of the province totalled Rmb8.2 billion in 2000, an increase of 9.2% over 1998.  Xining is the largest consumer centre in Qinghai, accounting for 57% of the total sales.

 

Major department stores and shopping centres in Qinghai include Qinghai Department Store（青海百貨股份有限公司）and Xining Xidajie Department Store（西寧市西大街百貨大樓）.

 

Foreign Trade

Qinghai's exports totalled US$140 million in 2000, an increase of 16.7%.  Export products were mainly resources based, with the share of non-ferrous metal and mineral products accounting for 55% of total export value.  Other major products were honey, textile, metal silicone, etc.

 

Imports totalled US$90 million (+28.6%) in 2000. Major import items included chemicals, telecommunication apparatus and equipment, etc. 

 

Hong Kong was the largest export market of Qinghai in the previous years. This status, however, changed in 1999, as Qinghai’s export to Hong Kong dropped from US$20.3 million in 1998 to US$4.14 million in that year, ranking 6^th behind Japan (US$23.1million), Korea, US, Kazakhstan and Singapore.

 

Foreign Investment

 

In the first quarter of 2001, Qinghai approved 13 foreign-invested projects with contracted foreign investment of US$23.2 million.  Major investment projects involved various industries such as agricultural and husbandry, eco-biology, transportation, energy, non-ferrous metal and machinery, etc.

 

In 2000, Qinghai signed 42 (+180%) new investment contracts with foreign investors. The contracted amount was US$122.3 million (+760.3%).

 

Xining is the major city in Qinghai to attract foreign investment.  In 1999, Xining's GDP reached Rmb7.3 billion, an increase of 10.1% over 1998.  For foreign investment, the city attracted US$11.8 million contracted investment in 1999. It also utilized US$5.6 million foreign investment fund in the same year.

       

In coming years, foreign investments are encouraged in the sectors of exploration of resources, energy industry, salt chemistry industry, raw materials industry, livestock husbandry and process industry of livestock product.

 

To boost the development of the central and western regions in China, the State Council has granted further tax incentives to foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) in China.  Under the existing policy, FIEs are entitled to a three-year tax reduction and exemption.  The new policy allows foreign-invested enterprises in the central and western regions to enjoy another three years of preferential tax rate when the current preferential term expires.  The tax rate can be further reduced to 10% if an enterprise is proved to export more than 70% of its annual output in terms of value.

 

Economic Indicators of Major Cities (1999)

	Population	GDP	Industrial Output	Retail Sales
Cities	('000)	(Rmb bn)	(Rmb bn)	(Rmb bn)
Xining        西寧	1,140   (+1.2%)	7.3   (+9.0%)	7.1   (-10.1%)	7.8     (+95%)
Golmud     格爾木	90        (+1.1%)	1.3   (+8.3%)	0.8   (+8.5%)	0.5     (+0%)
Delingha    德令哈	57        (+2.7%)	0.3   (+40%)	0.04 (-60%)	0.1     (+0%)

Note: Figures in  (   ) represent year-on-year growth         Source: Qinghai Statistical Yearbook, 2000

 

Major Economic & Technological Development Zones (ETDZs)

 

1.          Qiaotou Economic Development Zone（橋頭經濟技術開發區）- mainly engages in chemistry industry, building materials, nonferrous metal, machine manufacturing, coal & power.

 

2.          Golmud Kunlun Economic Development Zone（格爾木崑崙經濟開發區）- mainly develops lake salt, petroleum, natural gas, non-metal mineral deposits.

 

3.          Haixi Eastern Economic Development Zone（海西東部經濟區）– newly established in 2001, locates at east Haixi state, centers around the city of Delingha（德令哈）.

 

4.          Xining New and Hi-Tech Development Zone（西寧高新技術開發區）- engages in new resources, bioengineering technology, mineral products and deepen processing of salt lake resources, medicine, electricity.

 

5.          Tonghai Economic Development Zone