Since 2000 a number of coal-related chemical industrial projects and oil-substitution projects have been launched in Inner Mongolia.

About 60 km southeast of Genghis Khan Tomb in Erdos is Shangwan, the mine area of Shenhua Group Corporation, the country's top coal producer.

Its liquefied coal oil project with an investment of 50 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) is in its final stage of construction and will start production later in the year, according to Wang Yulong, deputy manager in charge of the coal liquefying arm of the Liquefied Coal Oil Company of Shenhua Group.

Once finished, it is expected to process about 3.45 million tons of coal into 1.08 million tons of oil annually, including 720,000 tons of diesel.

"The vast 1.18 million sq km area of Inner Mongolia has rich reserves of coal, oil, natural gas, and non-ferrous metals - strongly supporting the region and the whole country's development," Chu said.

However, he stressed that the region's industrial development "does not" totally rely on coal sales, which contributes less than 8 percent to the local industrial production value, equal to dairy-related product sales.

The future development of the region will rely on a number of "sustainable" factors such as developing the region into a "recycle economy", Chu said.

Editor:Chen Ge