Most villages in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China now have access to telephones thanks to efforts by the local government to develop the region's telecommunications, The local government has invested some 442 million yuan (53.2 million U.S. dollars) during the past several years to lay optical fiber cables and install telephone lines and networks in rural areas.

As a result, more than 2,300 villages now have access to telephones, with the plain areas equipped 100 percent and mountain areas 82.9 percent.

However, in the 1960s, there were no more than 100 telephone lines in the entire region, and the long-distance telephone lines reached no farther than 100 kilometers.

By the end of 1997, telecommunications had been greatly improved in these rural areas, but still only 955 out of some 2,570 villages had access to telephones.

Realizing that poor telecommunications was one of the major factors hindering the area's economic development, the autonomous regional government has since made every effort to enable all villages to have telephone access. (xinhua)