Western Areas to Receive Bank Hand-outsPoor western regions are to get hand-outs from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the next few years, bank sources have confirmed.The bank's lending plans for the 2000-2003 period include 34 programmes in China, involving a total of US$4.7 billion, according to chinadaily.com.cn. Much of the money will be channeled into developing agriculture, natural resources and infrastructure, said ADB Resident Representative for China Bruce Murray in an interview with China Daily at the weekend. Projects in agriculture, energy, transport and water supply have so far been kicked off this year. Transport will take centre stage in ADB's pay-out performance, starting next year, said Murray. One programme will run a highway from Beijing via Hebei Province to the cities of Qinhuangdao, Shenyang, Changchun and Harbin, to the Russian border. New roads will also be built in Southwest China's Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, Chongqing Municipality and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to help ease transport bottlenecks in these areas, said Murray. Projects to help air pollution control in Beijing, acid rain control along the Yangtze River and flood-relief in areas around the Yellow River and Northeast China's Songhua River are also on the programme list. China's poorer and more remote areas will benefit from ADB's help. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has already started an ADB-aided water-saving irrigation project to boost the region's agricultural development, according to Murray. He said China had benefited more than other countries from ADB's loans. The Shanghai Nanpu and Yangpu bridges, funded by ADB and designed and built by Chinese engineers, have now become a symbol of the city. Since China joined the ADB in 1986, the bank has allocated a total of US$10 billion in loans to then nation. Forty-six per cent of the loans has gone into transport projects, according to Murray. |
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