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Ningbo to Build World's Largest Bridge
Ningbo, a coastal city in East China's Zhejiang Province, will build a sea-crossing bridge to shorten its traffic distance to the metropolis in an effort to improve its business environment.
The 54-kilometre-long bridge, which will run from the city's Cixi to Zhapu in Jiaxing, is expected to be the world's longest.
The six-lane bridge will shorten the travel time from three hours to 1.5 hours when it is completed in 2006, Shao said.
It will cost 12 billion yuan (US$1.45 billion) in investment, said Ningbo Executive Vice-Mayor Shao Zhanwei on his tour of Shanghai on Wednesday.
Of the investment, 70 per cent will be collected from local enterprises, and the rest will come from the province's revenues.
He said the bridge is part of Ningbo's investment of 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion) in infrastructure facilities launched between 2001 and 2005.
"The huge funds invested aims to step up the local economic development,'' Shao said.
Shao also said Ningbo plans to generate a gross domestic product (GDP) of 200 billion yuan (US$24 billion) in 2005.
He said the infrastructure facilities include projects to enlarge the current container wharves at Beilun Port, build a 250,000-ton oil wharf and expand the city's international airport.
Once these projects are completed, Ningbo will be able to reach its goal of handling 150 million tons of cargo and 3 million 20-foot containers a year, said Peng Zhugang, deputy director of the Ningbo Foreign Economic and Trade Commission.
Peng said Ningbo plans to introduce US$6 billion in foreign funds in the next five years.
As of September, it had approved 5,631 foreign-funded ventures with a combined investment of US$15.8 billion.
Of those, Japanese-funded ventures account for US$1.2 billion.
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