There's been very little industrial development in Western China, largely because there's so little access to markets. I see no sign that this is likely to change any time soon, though I've seen very hypothetical discussion of petrochemical plants using feedstock from the Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan pipelines as a possibility for generating economic development in the area.

We hear a great deal about China's long term planning, but I'm not sure the walk measures up to the talk. We'll see...