Funds Secured for Western Projects: Development Planning Official

China expected to start ten projects this year as a prelude developing China's western regions. These projects have secured funds from central and local governments, enterprises, banks and overseas investors, a State Development Planning official said on May 18.

Song Mi, director of the Department of Basic Industries of the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), said at a press conference Thursday that the central government will increase investment in central and western areas this year, especially in infrastructure projects such as railways, highways, and airports. The ten projects include the construction of the 955-km-long Xi 'an-Hefei section of the Xi'an-Nanjing railway, and the 640-km- long Chongqing-Huaihua railway, with an investment of 23.2 billion yuan and 18.2 billion yuan respectively.

According to the official, China will also build several trunk highways, an airport in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, and build a light rail in Chongqing Municipality to improve urban transportation.

A 953-km-long gas pipeline will be built to link the Qaidam Basin, a place rich in natural gas and crude oil from Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province. The pipeline will have the capacity to move two billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.

Two flood-control projects to be built in Sichuan Province and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region will have multiple functions including electricity-generating and irrigation. The two projects are expected to cost about 7.5 billion yuan.

As a major part of developing China's western regions, 340,000 hectares of farm land along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River will be reconverted into forest or pasture, while over 430,000 hectares of waste land and hills will be reafforested. The ten projects also include the building of a potash fertilizer plant in Qinghai and building schools and improving higher education.

Investment by enterprises and local governments will serve as important source of funding the ten projects, Song Mi said. While infrastructure and the environment have been earmarked in developing China's western regions, industrial projects will also be approved in improving economic development in central and western areas, Song said.



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