我国８０年代初提出“三步走”的战略目标，其中第二步（国内生产总值比１９８０年翻两番）的目标已经实现。西部大开发将是中国第三步战略目标的重要部分。 １９９９年 ９月 ２２日，江泽民在中共十五届四中全会上明确指出：国家要实施西部大开发。此后他在中央民族工作会议上强调：实施西部大开发是中国下个世纪发展的重大战略任务。 Our country put forward the strategic goal of “three steps” in the early 1980s, of which the objective of the second step (quadrupling the GDP compared with 1980) has been achieved. The development of the western region will be an important part of China’s third strategic goal. On September 22, 1999, at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 15th CPC Central Committee, Jiang Zemin made it clear that the country should carry out the great development of the western region. Since then, he emphasized at the Central Ethnic Work Conference: Carrying out the large-scale development of the western region is a major strategic task for China’s development in the next century.