(Yicai Global) Feb. 6 -- Shanxi, a landlocked province in North China deemed conservative and closed, has often sought to open its capital and industry.

Local state-owned enterprises from it and coastal Jiangsu province yesterday signed a joint venture agreement in Taiyuan, Shanxi's capital, with Sujin Energy Holding Co., a wholesaler of electricity transmitted from Shanxi, China News reported. Sujin Energy, which has registered capital of CNY6 billion, buys and sells power, coal fuel and natural gas, and invests in coal mines and other energy projects.

A major coal power province, Shanxi boasts over 80 million kilowatts of installed capacity, of which 38 million kilowatts go to outward transmission, while southeastern Jiangsu, a major power user, logged over 580 billion kilowatts of electricity use last year, 18 percent of it outsourced. The provinces thus enjoy strong complementarity in energy cooperation.

Shanxi hopes to extend its cooperation with Jiangsu firms to coke-steel and coal power-aluminum, said Wang Yixin, vice governor of the former. SOEs in the two provinces will integrate all their resources through Sujin Energy, said Ma Qiulin, Jiangsu's vice governor.