State-Owned Companies Agree to $45 Billion of Projects in China's Guizhou

China’s southwestern province of Guizhou signed almost 300 billion yuan （$45 billion） of contracts with state-owned companies as part of government efforts to spur economic growth in poorer inland regions.

China Petrochemical Corp., Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd. and China Railway Group Ltd. were among companies that signed the 47 contracts, according to a statement published in the People’s Daily newspaper today. All of the projects are slated to begin before 2012, it said.

Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to increase growth in the nation’s central and western provinces as part of the government’s bid to spur domestic consumption and to narrow the income gap between inland regions and coastal cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou. Guizhou’s per capital gross domestic product last year was one eighth that of Shanghai’s.

Projects announced for Guizhou include a 52 billion yuan petrochemical and coal chemical complex to be constructed by China Petrochemical Corp., the parent of Hong Kong and Shanghai- listed China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. Aluminum Corp of China Ltd. agreed to build a 17.5 billion yuan base that includes alumina and aluminum smelting plants and a bauxite mine, according to the statement.