BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- As of the beginning of November, China has nearly 7,000 public-private partnership (PPP) projects underway with a total investment of about 9 trillion yuan (about 1.28 trillion U.S. dollars), an official with the country's top economic planner said Saturday.

Infrastructure has been the major application area of the PPP model, said Gao Gao, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) at the 4th China Public Private Partnerships Forum held in Beijing.

Projects related to urban infrastructure, social affairs, transportation and ecological environment protection accounted for nearly 90 percent of the total investment, Gao said.

According to Gao, the sustainable and healthy development of PPP model is of great significance to improving the investment confidence of social capital and promoting effective investment.

In the future, the NDRC will implement investment management procedures according to law and regulations, and create a good institutional environment for the healthy development of PPP, Gao said.