China will invest 4.7 trillion yuan in major transport projects to give more reliable transportation access to China's more remote areas. [Photo: Xinhua]

A massive spending plan has been outlined to try to give more reliable transportation access to China's more remote areas.

As part of a new 3-year outline for transportation development, over 300 new projects have been laid out.

Among them are a significant number of projects to connect this country's more isolated, and often impoverished, regions with regional hubs through road and rail.

Chinese authorities are planning to spend 4.7-trillion yuan - around 725-billion US dollars - on the projects over the next 3-years.

Zheng Jian with the National Development and Reform Commission says the massive spending plans are part of a pledge to pull everyone in China above the poverty line by 2020.

"We think access to more reliable forms of movement is the linch-pin to helping people out of poverty. This is why we've incorporated rural road construction in our new plans, which will link these remote areas to regional hubs in the next 3-years."

China's unique topography, particularly in the south and southwestern parts of the country, has left numerous communities somewhat isolated from the rest of the country.

This has limited their access to government support, leaving them toward the bottom of the development curve.

The new transportation spending plan also includes projects to create better links in China's major centers, including inter-city links in the Yangtze and Pearl River Delta regions, as well as throughout the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.