China's road infrastructure spending for 2000 is likely to stay on balance with this year's budget of 180 billion yuan (2.17 billion US dollars), according to sources with an international symposium on China's infrastructure reform.

The 100-plus attending officials from the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC) and the Ministry of Communications and experts from both at home and overseas held in-depth discussions on the development of China's communications infrastructure.

It proposed that by the year 2020, investment for railway construction will amount to 357 billion yuan (43 billion US dollars) and a big chunk of communications expenditure will be appropriated to improve and upgrade airport facilities in the country's central and western region.

Hu Zixiang, a senior research fellow with the Macro-Economic Research Institute under the SDPC, noted that China's communications infrastructure investment last year amounted to some 300 billion yuan (36 billion US dollars), or 25 percent of the country's total infrastructure spending and equaled the total for the previous two years.

The money for railway construction has come mainly fro0m the fund designated for railway construction and loans from state- owned banks. As a matter of fact, the investment for railway and aviation industries relies on the state funding and bank loans, and some airport projects have also introduced investment from overseas. (Xinhua)