China's Economy to Grow at 7 Percent: Top PlannerThe Chinese economy will keep growing at the rate of seven percent or so in the next five years despite the sluggish economic situation elsewhere in the world, top planner Zeng Peiyan said Wednesday in Nanjing.Zeng, minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission, made the remarks when speaking to the ongoing World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention in the capital city of eastern Jiangsu Province. The minister said in order to realize the goal of steady growth, the Chinese government will continue its policy of stimulating domestic demand, and will try to turn the potential demand into real buying power. Infrastructure construction will be intensified in the next couple of yeas. More highway networks will cover the inland western areas, with 200,000 kilometers of roads added by 2005. Subways are expected to be constructed in major cities with a total investment of 200 billion yuan (24 billion U.S. dollars) from the central government. Railway construction is included in the ambitious plan. New lines will be built while old ones reconstructed to complete the country's railway network. The minister said that besides the ongoing Qinghai-Tibet Railway on the plateau, an express rail line connecting Beijing and Shanghai will start soon. Airports and deep-water berths will also be expanded, and more power stations with large output will be built for rural areas where people used to suffer from unreliable or no electricity. The exploration capacity of oil and natural gas will increase by 95 billion tons and 37 billion cubic meters respectively by the year 2005. |
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