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Aid needed to exploit resources in the west

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Resource-rich western regions could help ease bottlenecks in the country's supply of energy and raw materials, provided Beijing gave more aid, a senior CPPCC delegate said yesterday.

Ai Pishan , chairman of the Shaanxi provincial CPPCC, said the current level of support from the central government was not enough to promote development in the west.

'The central government should earmark more funds and grant more preferential policies to help realise the enormous development potential in the areas and minimise the [development] disparity between regions,' Mr Ai said on the sidelines of the NPC meeting.

Mr Ai, who is also a national CPPCC delegate, said Beijing should give western areas even more preferential treatment than that granted to coastal special economic zones in the early 1980s.

'To completely copy the preferential policies the central government granted to the special economic zones is not enough,' he said.

Mr Ai said exploration for natural resources on the mainland would require a shift in the focus of development to the west.

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