More than ever before, the Chinese Government is thinking about the human factor behind each one of its policies. And of all the central government policies, the ones engineering the economic revival in China's old industrial belt in the three northeastern provinces are among the most important.

The provinces--Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning--used to be the powerhouse of China's industrialization from the 1950s to the 70s.

They have had difficulties adapting to the changes, which have come about since the beginning of the market-oriented reforms in the 1980s.

Some of the old industrial (especially mining) towns in this area now have some of the worst cases of urban poverty in China today, as a result of a double whammy - a lack of new opportunities and a depletion of natural resources.

Many people across China have much sympathy for people in this region. It's not just because China owes much of its progress to the hard work people in the Northeast did during the revolutionary wars and the difficult periods that followed.

It is also because we are seeing, in our workplaces, brilliant performances by young people from those places. The sluggish job market in their hometowns has led them to other parts of the country.

Many drive taxis in Shenzhen and other cities on the south coast. They fill junior positions in commercial design studios in Beijing, and are salesmen and women all over the country. But we haven't heard them talk about their hometown changes as proudly as other people do.

Of course, there is a strong commitment to the economic revitalization of the Northeast, both on the part of the central government and the public. Plenty of debating time will no doubt be devoted to this subject at the forthcoming legislative session of the National People's Congress.

In the last couple of years, the central government has injected large sums of money into building new infrastructure and rebuilding old factories in the Northeast. The Chinese language press has reported that more than half of the projects financed by State treasury bonds are in this area.

Funds have flowed into the area from so many different sources of central government - some for industrial upgrading and some for agricultural development - that a total figure is hard to come to.

Two new railways, designed to further integrate the Northeast with the national and international marketplace, will cost at least 80 billion yuan (US$9.6 billion) initially.

There have already been some tax cuts. Now policies are being thought up to further relieve some large State-owned enterprises from their financial problems such as having to pay for large numbers of staff and retired workers as required previously under the planned economy.

Figures from the State Council Office of Northeast Revitalization show that in the first half of 2004, the three provinces all quickened their annual GDP growths. They rose from 10.5 per cent in Heilongjiang, 10.8 per cent in Jilin, and 9.5 per cent in Liaoning to 10.6 per cent, 14.9 per cent and 12.2 per cent respectively.

However, changes don't happen overnight and the task of reviving an old industrial area is far from easy.

One example of the Northeastern dilemma has been the recent coal mine disaster in Fuxin, an old mining town, in mid-February that killed 214 workers, the worst such disaster for many years.

Attempts to wring out the last drop from drying-out resources illustrate a certain air of desperateness. Certainly local people are yearning for a change. But they need direction. They need an environment consisting of not only sympathy and handouts, but help on where to go and working examples to inspire them.

At a time when private investors from China are flocking to the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia and even the Middle East, the nation also needs some policies to encourage those investors to bring their businesses to the Northeast. This would mean new jobs in the area.

There is still large room for improvement in mobilizing our society's, not just government's, resources towards this goal, including promoting entrepreneurship and pooling private capital. Helping the old industrial belt to dust off its rust and regain its shine is a project for us all.