Date: 04/23/2000

Author: ZHAO SHAOQIN, Business Weekly staff

Some foreign companies are making significant commitments to the Chinese central government's "go west" initiative.

The government's strategy has already attracted significant attention from multinational companies enthusiastic about integrating themselves with infrastructural developments in the west.

A large contingent is participating in developing the abundant natural gas resources of the west to fuel the country's economic growth.

Enron, a US-based energy company, has worked closely with PetroChina in developing a 950-kilometre gas pipeline to transport gas from the Qaidam Basin of Qinghai Province to its capital Xi'ning and to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, said John Ambler, vice-president of marketing, communications and public relations of Enron Asia Pacific, Africa and China.

According to Ambler, Enron recently completed a feasibility study for a gas pipeline that will run from Sichuan Province's Zhongxian County to Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province.

In addition, Enron has a 51 per cent stake in a 248-megawatt co-generation power plant in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. The power plant, currently fuelled with coal, is to be fired from natural gas within the next three years.

Another energy giant, Shell, signed a contract last year with the China National Petroleum Corp covering the integrated development of the Changbei Gas Field in the Ordos Basin, including gas production, gas transmission and the development of markets in North China and other coastal areas.

According to Nick Wood, public affairs director of Shell Companies in Northeast Asia, Shell has launched evaluation work on the potential of the gas field, a feasibility study for a pipeline to channel gas from the field, as well as marketing activities.

Following evaluation and development phases, the project is expected to deliver up to 3 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually for 20 years to eastern China.

Wood indicated that Shell is also keen to get involved in developing gas fields in the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

As a leading company in electronics and electrical industries, Germany-based Siemens has long been committed to developing infrastructure in western China, said Beate Bieniek, executive manager of Siemens Ltd China.

Siemens has provided lots of significant equipment to help promote local economic growth, such as the Lanzhou-Xining-Lhasa SDH Backbone and the Xinjiang ATM Wideband Network.

Industrial turbines provided by Siemens are running efficiently and safely in metallurgical, petrochemical and fertilizer industries in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces and in the Xinjiang region.

Bieniek said Siemens has established two joint ventures in Chengdu and Xi'an and four regional offices in Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang and Kunming.

Thanks to rapid the expansion of its businesses, Siemens' Chengdu Office has increased the number of its staff from only one in 1994 to 81. Its engineering base in Chengdu even provides services and help promote localization in Siemens' businesses in coastal China.

France-based Vivendi-Generale des Eaux is committed to helping promote urban facilities in western China. Together with its Japanese partner Marubeni, it won China's first BOT contract in the water sector in Chengdu.

The company will design and build a new tube water plant with a minimum daily capacity of 400,000 cubic metres.

Experts said it will still be a long time before foreign investment floods into the west.

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