Large SOEs swarm to Xinjiang to make investment

Chinanews, Urumqi, July 18 – In recent years, many large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) all went to Xinjiang for investment, attracted by its rich mineral and other natural resources, and its contiguity to central Asian countries.
So far, more than ten large state-owned companies, including PetroChina, SinoChem, China Oil and Food Corporation (COFCO), China Power Investment Corporation, Shenhua Group, State Development and Investment Corp (SDIC), and Xuzhou Mining Group, have all made their investment in Xinjiang. The total investment made by these large national companies already exceed 10 billion yuan.
In Tacheng, a remote city in Xinjiang, local government took advantage of the national policy of supporting Xinjiang to invite more and more large state-owned enterprises to go there. So far, more than ten national companies have settled in Tacheng. These companies cover various industrial sectors, including energy, mineral resources exploitation, and agricultural products. Their investment exceeds 3 billion yuan.
Information shows that more than 138 kinds of minerals have been discovered in Xinjiang, accounting for 80% of all the mineral types discovered in China. In Xinjiang, there are 20.8 billion tons of potential oil reserves, 10 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, and 2.19 trillion tons of coal resources. Xinjiang has abundant resources of iron, copper, nickel and gold.
As China further carries out the West Development Strategy, the western region has become a popular place for making investment. With the central government’s western development policy, it is an inevitable trend that more and more state-owned enterprises will go to the west for investment. As economy develops rapidly in Xinjiang, these enterprises will also divert more and more of their capital to the western region, too, some experts say.
At present, Xinjiang has entered into a most booming period of capital flow. State-owned companies directly supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission under the State Council have already put 50 billion yuan of capital in Xinjiang.