ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the development of China's central region as well as the government's regional development policy, to facilitate a better understanding of China's future development. The level of urbanization of the central region lags behind those of the eastern and northeast regions, although it has risen faster in recent years. A framework of the strategies to promote the rise of the central region strategy was first introduced in March 2004, in the government work report by Premier Wen Jiabao in March 2004. The central region is essential in securing China's energy and mineral resources supply as it has richer reserves in several important and rare mineral resources then the eastern region. China's first 30 years of industrialization from 1949-1978, led by the expansion of heavy industries, helped the central region in building a solid industrial foundation and having a complete range of industries.
