Xu Quanlin, a board member of Zhejiang Hydropower Construction Machinery Co. Ltd., rented a booth at the 13th East-West China Cooperation and Investment Trade Fair for the first time in Xi'an on April 5-8. The country's recent economic stimulus plans made him believe that he could not afford to miss the huge potential market in west China.

BIG PLATFORM: The East-West China Cooperation and Investment Fair held in Xi'an every April is a big event that attracts industrial transfers from east China(LIU XINLIAN)

"I have noticed that most of the Central Government's stimulus plan centers on infrastructure construction," Xu said. "The western part of China is not developed yet, and its infrastructure needs to be improved. My products will find a very big market here."

The unfolding global financial crisis is taking a heavy toll on east China's export-oriented economy. The rather tough conditions pose grim challenges for enterprises there. In response, many are looking to the west and shifting their industrial centers there to weather the storm.

Shaanxi Province in particular is seizing the opportunity to attract and accept the industrial transfer.

On July 1, 2008, the industrial hydraulics and motion technology company Bosch Roxroth (China) Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bosch Group, said it would move its whole electric drive and control department from Shenzhen to Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi.

This is only one of many examples of companies that have moved west in what has now become a growing trend.

Shaanxi is committed to accepting more than 5,000 projects transferred from both home provinces and abroad in the next three to five years, according to a pamphlet published by the provincial government last June. Local governments will offer some preferential policies for transferred projects, said Li Xuemei, Director of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Commerce.

Amid the industrial transfer from east to west, Shaanxi's lower production costs are becoming more and more attractive. More than 1 million students in Shaanxi's 127 universities and colleges provide various enterprises with excellent human resources, said Zhao Shicheng, Director of the Shaanxi Sub-council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Zhao said Shaanxi has 200,000 employees who specialize in the IT industry. The average salary for IT workers in the province is only one third of what it is in Beijing and Shanghai, and half of what it is in Shenzhen and Dalian. Shaanxi's employment rate is relatively stable compared to other big cities, he added. Zhang also stressed Shaanxi's advantage in workforce stability compared to Shenzhen, which is a migrant city. The transient nature of the workforce in Shenzhen increases hiring costs, he said.

Mobi Antenna Technologies (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. is a mobile telecommunication products and radio-frequency devices producer. Despite its fast development over the past decade, Mobi found that Shenzhen was no longer an ideal place for its further expansion. The company could not afford a bigger office building and larger factory there, and its human resources costs were continuing to climb.