Beijing: China has worked out policies to transform two western border towns into key financial and manufacturing hubs linking the country`s inland areas with Kazakhstan and Pakistan in particular.
The move is expected to bring prosperity to the relatively poor Xinjiang region and shift the country`s opening up strategy from focusing on eastern coastal regions to a more balanced approach that also emphasizes the landlocked west, reported. Kashgar, an ancient Silk Road town that borders Pakistan through the plateau of Pamirs, will become a regional logistics centre, a financial and trading hub, and a key processing centre for internationally traded goods, APP quoted Xinhua as saying.
China and Kazakhstan will be linked by a new rail and road at Horgos in early December, and a China-Kazakhstan free trade centre there is expected to start operation by the end of the year, an official said.
Bureau Report