Task number 2 is well on the way. Both Chongqing and Chengdu have large hi-tech bazaars and development zones that sell every electronic gadget you can imagine as well as stacks of pirated music, software and games. The Chongqing Hi-Tech Industry Development Zone covers 12 square kilometers and was established in 1991. More than 4000 enterprises have registered along with more than 300 foreign-funded ones and they reached an income of 12.5 billion yuan in 1999. The plan is to get 60 billion by 2010 and 120 billion by 2015.
Net bars dot the landscape and a large swath of the population owns a cell phone.
Net bars are full all night long, most of the day, even during lunchtime and dinnertime, a meal routine which is adhered to quite rigidly in China. So, Chinese outside of the cities can access most electronic and Internet services, even if they do have to wade through a road of mud to get to the rental store. In terms of policy and regulations, western China is truly starting from scratch. Before policy could be created, it had to be destroyed. Thousands of local regulations, fees, taxes, commissions and tolls had to be swept away to make the investment environment more hospitable.