The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced the "Encouraged Industries Catalog for the Western Region (2020 Edition)" on the 26th. Enterprises in the western region that are encouraged will have their corporate income tax reduced to 15%.

The newly revised catalog will come into effect on March 1, 2021. A relevant NDRC official stated that this revision emphasizes focusing on key areas, addressing shortcomings, and strengthening weaknesses, promoting the adjustment of the industrial structure, optimization of industrial layout, and development of characteristic and advantageous industries in the western region, actively serving the new development pattern where domestic circulation is the mainstay and domestic and international circulations promote each other.

Reducing the corporate income tax rate to 15% for encouraged enterprises in the western region is one of the important policies of the Western Development Strategy. The Encouraged Industries Catalog for the Western Region defines the scope of industries applicable to the corporate income tax preferential policies of the Western Development Strategy, serving as an important basis for enterprises to enjoy these policies. The current catalog was announced and implemented in 2014.

The applicable scope of the encouraged industries policy in the western region includes 12 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in western China: Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang (including the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps), Inner Mongolia, and Guangxi. This area accounts for more than 70% of China's land area. Yanbian in Jilin, Enshi in Hubei, Xiangxi in Hunan, and Ganzhou in Jiangxi also follow the same policies as the western region.

This revision mainly reflects four directions: First, further supporting scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening; second, further promoting the orderly transfer of industries to the west; third, further encouraging the western region to better leverage its unique advantages; and fourth, further supporting the western region in addressing shortcomings and strengthening weaknesses.

(1) Chongqing Municipality

3. Deep processing of strontium minerals (celestite) and other metal ores; deep processing of non-metallic minerals such as witherite, rock salt, fluorite, and barite; high-performance glass fiber and composite materials (excluding restricted and eliminated projects in the "Guiding Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment"); projects with an annual production capacity of 10 million tons or more of artificial sand and gravel

8. Research and development and manufacturing of mine safety instruments and mine emergency rescue equipment

32. Recycled aluminum and aluminum processing projects (excluding restricted and eliminated projects in the "Guiding Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment")

(2) Sichuan Province

4. Development and production of nuclear-grade graphite

5. Advanced manufacturing technology and application of high-quality titanium raw materials (CaO+MgO≤1.5%); titanium slag production technology of 60,000 tons/year or more (furnace capacity ≥25000kVA); deep processing of titanium materials and product applications; production of titanium dioxide by the chloride method and supporting chlor-alkali production, treatment of high-salt wastewater (excluding restricted and eliminated projects in the "Guiding Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment")

6. Development and application of large-scale, efficient, and clean separation and extraction technology for vanadium-titanium magnetite (the mining recovery rate, beneficiation recovery rate, and comprehensive utilization rate of vanadium-titanium magnetite ore must meet relevant national standards)

7. Tungsten and molybdenum products and tungsten and molybdenum wire materials

8. Development and application of new carbon black processes of 40,000 tons/year or more

9. Development and application of clean production technology for vanadium pentoxide of 3,000 tons/year or more (zero discharge of wastewater and waste residue); development and application of advanced manufacturing technology for vanadium products (vanadium-based alloys, vanadium-based functional materials, vanadium fine chemical products)

(3) Guizhou Province

3. Development and production of new manganese deep-processing products (excluding restricted and eliminated projects in the "Guiding Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment")

4. Aluminum and deep processing of aluminum (excluding restricted and eliminated projects in the "Guiding Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment")

5. Development of new titanium metal smelting technologies (direct electrolytic production of titanium metal using high-titanium slag and rutile), deep processing of titanium materials, and development and production of new titanium-containing fine chemicals

6. Development of advanced process technology and equipment and new products for deep processing of vanadium

7. Development and production of high-performance magnesium alloys

8. Integrated resource utilization of "phosphorus-electricity-chemical", fine phosphate chemicals (excluding restricted and eliminated projects in the "Guiding Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment")

9. Development and production of new deep-processed barite products

10. Fine processing and comprehensive development and utilization of dolomite

30. Development and application of underground coal gasification technology, manufacturing of complete sets of equipment for underground coal gasification power generation

31. Research and application of intelligent equipment for 110/N00 coal mining method

32. Research and development and production of basalt fiber and its finished products

33. Stone processing and production

(4) Yunnan Province

3. Development and deep processing of non-ferrous metal products (excluding restricted and eliminated projects in the "Guiding Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment")

4. Comprehensive utilization of mineral resources and equipment manufacturing; efficient transformation of resource utilization in parks (see the relevant explanations in the 2019 edition of the "Guiding Catalog for Green Industries")

(5) Tibet Autonomous Region

30. Stone development (excluding restricted and eliminated projects in the "Guiding Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment")

(6) Shaanxi Province

1. Comprehensive utilization of multi-element symbiotic mineral resources

2. Development and production of high-performance magnesium alloys, deep processing of titanium materials

24. Research and development and manufacturing of mine safety instruments and mine emergency rescue equipment

33. Construction and production of safe and efficient coal mines (including mines and open-pit mines) of 3 million tons/year or more (coking coal 1.5 million tons/year or more), development and utilization of safe, high-yield, and efficient coal mining technology

49. Research and production of new materials such as new energy materials, titanium/zirconium/nickel/magnesium/lithium and other special alloy materials, special non-metallic materials, special rubber materials, high-silica glass fiber, high-temperature alloys, 3D printing materials, superconducting materials, special ceramics, graphene, wave-absorbing materials, and energetic materials

(7) Gansu Province

Construction and production of safe and efficient coal mines (including underground and open-pit mines) with an annual capacity of 3 million tons or more (1.5 million tons or more for coking coal), and development and utilization of safe, high-yield, and efficient coal mining technologies

8. Qinghai Province

3. Comprehensive utilization of salt lake resources such as potassium, sodium, magnesium, lithium, boron, strontium, bromine, iodine, rubidium, and cesium; development of a series of products and utilization of by-products (excluding projects listed in categories 27, restricted and eliminated, of the "Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog")

9. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

2. Construction and production of safe and efficient coal mines (including underground and open-pit mines) with an annual capacity of 3 million tons or more (1.5 million tons or more for coking coal); development and utilization of safe, high-yield, and efficient coal mining technologies, and research and application of new technologies and equipment for coal mine fire prevention and control

10. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (including the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps)

4. Construction and production of safe and efficient coal mines (including underground and open-pit mines) with an annual capacity of 3 million tons or more (1.5 million tons or more for coking coal), and development and utilization of safe, high-yield, and efficient coal mining technologies

5. Exploration, orderly mining, deep processing, and development and application of new processing technologies for iron, manganese, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, tungsten (tin), antimony, and rare metals; construction and operation of a recycling system for waste iron, waste steel, waste copper, waste aluminum, and rare metal recycled resources (excluding projects listed in the restricted and eliminated categories of the "Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog")