Economic development of Three Gorges Reservoir Area remains backward. Here, per capita GNP and per capita national income are far less than that of Sichuan Province, Hubei Province and China respectively. Its industrial structure shows the characteristics of early phase of industrializing process. Economic development of the counties close to Chongqing City and Yichang City are more advanced than these counties located in the central part of the reservoir area. At present, economic development for the reservoir area runs into the difficulties: low profit in the leading industries, loss incurred in state-owned enterprises, small scale in most of enterprises and weak economic core of the cities and towns in the area. It is the best way for the reservoir area to wage protracted struggle against poverty and to carry out sustainable development strategy for its long-term development. For practising the strategy, it is necessary to lay stress on its infrastructural construction; meanwhile it should make up an optimal composition for distributing fund, allocating enterprises and choosing ownerships. It is also necessary to make strenuous efforts to promote the tertiary sector. In short, it can not catch with the development level of the country average unless exerting several decades efforts.
