China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has revealed that investment in network construction this year is expected to reach 435 billion yuan or 70 billion U.S. dollars.

Ministry spokesperson Zhang Feng says the move will help promote consumption and attract effective investments in the area.

"In the next two years, the investment in the network construction will likely exceed 700 billion yuan. It will directly and indirectly drive up investment in relevant upstream and downstream industrial chains. In terms of promoting consumption, the investment will promote sales of terminal devices including smart phones, computers, Internet TV, etc., which is expected to stand at more than 1.6 trillion yuan this year."

The ministry adds it will supervise domestic carriers to lower average charges for mobile phone Internet and fixed broadband by at least 30 percent from the previous year by the end of this year.