Many roads and railroad pass through the northern slope of Tianshan Mountain. It is an ideal place to establish economic and technology development zone.

83% of Xinjiang's heavy industry and 62% of the light industry are concentrated on the northern slope of Tianshan Mountain. This region produces over 40% of the GDP in Xinjiang.

In 2000, Urumqi invested about a billion Yuan to reconstruct the old city proper. Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture will establish 7 large production bases. Some of the products include tomato sauce, grape wine, cotton and beef. The production bases will be constructed in 5 years.

The natural gas reserve in Tarim Basin makes up 1/4 of total reserve in China. The prospected gas reserve is 760 billion cubic meters. Gas will be transferred to Shanghai by 2001.

At the same time, Xinjiang started Tarim River Valley Ecological Protection Project. Water conservation is also started.