When a revered brand is wooed into a place, there is often a ripple effect among its peers. Following Shaanxi Automobile, Cummins set up a plant in Jingwei New City. On the heels of China XD Group, a producer of power supply equipment, elbowed in ABB and Mitsubishi. Yongji Electric Machine Factory now enjoys the stimulating company of rivals Hitachi and Alstom, and BP eventually nestled up to energy early bird Sunoasis, a solar energy business.

This chain reaction has gone beyond the boundary of industries. Also in the zone are billions worth of projects by conglomerates ranging from China North Industries Group Corporation (equipment for both military and civil use) and China CNR Co., Ltd. (electric locomotives) to the Yurun Group (food, logistics, tourism retailing and real estate). To maintain and then ratchet up this momentum, the Economic and Technological Development Zone earmarked RMB 70 billion in 2009 to upgrade local infrastructure. It is part and parcel of the RMB 100 billion package the city plans to deploy in the transformation of the zone into a manufacturing juggernaut within three to five years.

Road Less Traveled: Innovation

In his speech at Sichuan Univeristy in November 2009 Long Yongtu, secretary general of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), predicted the exodus of factories from eastern China means "the west is on its way to becoming the world's manufacturing center." Xi'an, one of the biggest inland urban magnets, has felt the shift in the nation's industrial contour through the surge of investments and businesses headed its way.

But some scholars have cautioned the west to steer away from adopting the low-tech, low-profit growth pattern of coastal areas. "Massive foreign investments in the Pearl River and the Yangtze River deltas left a magnitude of labor-intensive factories in their wake – processing trades that earned China the name 'workshop of the world.' The west should not go down this road. From the very beginning it should forsake 'made in China' for 'invented in China,' and cultivate a scaled economy sustained by advanced technologies," said senior media analyst Zhang Jingwei.

Xi'an is in the position to carve out a niche in the nation's invention hub, and has the resources to. It is corporate seat to a number of big-name original manufacturers and a national base of five industries that will shape China's future – aerospace, aviation, biology, new materials and IT. They have ready intellectual backup from the city's many universities, scientific research institutes and laboratories at the national and provincial levels whose faculties include more than 40 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. Xi'an's brainpower reserve rivals those of cities boasting more serious economic might, like Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou.

According to the lastest data from the Ministry of Commerce, the Xi'an Economic and Technological Development Zone now ranks second in terms of comprehensive strength and innovative ability among the 13 national economic and technological development zones in western China. "The scale of modern manufacturing and the role of the new municipal administrative center are what distinguish Xi'an ETDZ and give it a sharp competitive edge over its peers," said Su Qin, a professor with the prestigious Xi'an Jiaotong University.

Luo Jun, secretary-general of the Asian Manufacturing Association, predicted that Xi'an will ascend to greater prominence in the regional economy over the coming five years, providing impetus to neighboring cities and maximizing the anticipated influx of investment. "For 13 straight years Xi'an has maintained an annual economic growth rate of more than 13 percent; even in the depth of a global economic slowdown in 2008 it was a stunning 15.6 percent. In the first quarter of 2009 the Xi'an economy was the fastest growing of the 15 municipalities at the deputy provincial level nationwide."

Xi'an is projected to be a key sci-tech research and development center and manufacturing base for the nation by 2020. Its evolution into a regional hub of commerce, finance, and the conference & exhibition industry, all figure in future scenarios. Meanwhile, it must maintain its appeal to international tourists. These prospects thrill the people of Xi'an. "Xi'an has been marginalized since the demise of the Tang Dynasty 1,103 years ago. Now for the first time it figures in the national strategy," enthused Wang Xuedong, chair of the city's Development and Reform Commission. "If the first decade of the Western Development Drive is the warm-up period for Xi'an, it is going to be a sprint for the next 10 to 20 years."