Lanzhou New Area (LNA), China's fifth national level new area, will become a growth engine to boost the economic development of the country's northwest region, a senior official said Friday.

In August, LNA, located in Qinwangchuan Basin to the north of Lanzhou, capital city of Gansu Province, was approved by the State Council as the fifth national level special economic zone, which is also the first state-level new development area in the northwest of China.

"The establishment of LNA marks the country's latest effort to accelerate development of the western regions," Qin Yucai, director of the National Reform and Development Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, said at a press conference.

"LNA will serve as a pilot zone for the nation's economic restructuring and strategic platform for opening up to the West and for taking up the eastern and central China's equipment manufacturing industry," he said.