SHANGHAI -- China is considering a plan to invest five trillion yuan (US$730 billion) in the transport sector in the next three to five years, state media reported Wednesday. The investments would include roads, waterways and ports, drastically boosting previous plans for investment, the China Business News reported, citing an unnamed source.
The plan partly overlaps with a previously announced proposal to spend about two trillion yuan in the sector between 2006 and 2020, the report said.
“The additional funds would be able to boost domestic demand swiftly,” the source was quoted as saying.
China is ramping up construction to stimulate the domestic economy and create jobs amid a slowdown in overall economic growth.
The global financial woes were instrumental in slowing growth in the world’s fourth-largest nation to nine percent in the third quarter, the lowest in around five years.
Last month, the State Council, or cabinet, approved a plan to spend two trillion yuan on construction of new railways by 2020. About 1.2 trillion yuan had already been allocated, state media reported.
BEIJING -- China will spend 1 trillion yuan (US$146.5 billion) over the next three years to rebuild areas ravaged by the Sichuan earthquake, local media reported on Thursday, citing the country’s top planning agency. The May 12 quake killed 80,000 people and left about 10 million homeless as whole villages were razed across a broad swath of southwest China.
The funds would have the goal of making “basic living standards and economic development match or exceed pre-quake levels”, the Beijing News said, citing the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The budget, allocated to 51 of the hardest-hit counties in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, would include 120 billion yuan for health, education and other basic services, the NDRC said in a notice on its web site (www.ndrc.gov.cn).
Other funds would be divided among housing construction, industrial development, environmental protection and big-ticket infrastructure projects, including a multi-billion yuan railway connecting Sichuan capital Chengdu with the quake-damaged town of Dujiangyan.
The quake reconstruction budget follows calls from Chinese officials for swift measures to lift government spending to cushion the impact of the global financial crisis.
China plans to spend 5 trillion yuan on roads, waterways and ports in the next three to five years, a massive increase over initial budget plan of 2 trillion yuan, according to a report in the semi-official China Business News on Wednesday.
Chinese media has also reported that the government has approved a total of 2 trillion yuan for railway investment since the start of 2004, of which 1.2 trillion has already been spent.
