URUMQI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region achieved fixed-asset investment (FAI) of about 184.35 billion yuan (26.23 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of the year, up 7.3 percent year on year, local authorities said Monday.

The growth rate was 56.2 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year, which shows that the region's FAI rebounded rapidly.

According to an economic performance report of Xinjiang in H1 of 2019 issued by the regional government, the region has sped up the construction of a batch of key projects, including the operation of Urumqi Metro Line 1 and the expansion of the Urumqi Diwopu International Airport.

From January to June, 87.74 billion yuan was invested in key projects in Xinjiang. Construction on 48 new projects started during the same period with a total investment of nearly 8.96 billion yuan, said the report.

In H1, the region strengthened infrastructure construction in the poverty-stricken area in south Xinjiang. So far, construction on key projects, including a water conservancy project on the Yurungkax River in Hotan Prefecture and a power grid project, has started. In addition, a power network transmission and transformation project in the prefecture which went into operation in late June has efficiently improved the power supply shortage in the area.

The region has also accelerated the construction of more railway and road projects, according to the report.