Cooperation between China's affluent east and the relatively bleak and backward west has begun to bear economic fruit.

Statistics available show that the economic growth rate disparity between the western region and the rest of China has dropped to 0.6 percentage points in 2002 from 1.5 percentage points in 1999 when the country initiated the western development strategy.

China's vast, arid western region is economically underdeveloped mainly because of its natural, historical and social factors. Its current per capita gross domestic product equals 67 percent of the nation's average, a mere 40 percent of that of the eastern region.

Since the initiation of the western development strategy, however, China's western areas, with their plentiful natural resources and broad market potential, have become increasingly more attractive to investors around the country

The Kizilsu and Kirgiz border ports within Xinjiang, both situated at the westernmost tip of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, for instance, have attracted two large investment projects.

An engineering company from eastern Jiangsu Province has invested 5 million yuan (US$600,000) in a project with a local firm to prolong the shelf-life of local grapes and figs, which are produced in large quantity and high quality here, but cannot be sold elsewhere in the country or abroad due to deterioration.

It is understood that more than 10,000 enterprises and one million people from eastern Jiangsu Province are currently doing business in the western region, bringing with them investments totalling 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion).

"By investing in the west, eastern firms have not only helped to stimulate the development of the west, but also further developed themselves by engaging in new projects and new markets," said Li Quanlin, vice-governor of Jiangsu.

Meanwhile, capital from overseas is also beginning to enter the west in increasing amounts.

A source with the Ministry of Commerce said more than 100 foreign firms have invested in the western areas. A case in point is Southwest China's Sichuan Province, which has drawn 82 of the world's leading firms.

North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region received 27 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) and US$560 million of foreign capital last year alone, which made up 40 percent of its annual fixed assets input.