Macao will contribute 1.98 billion yuan (289 million U.S. dollars) to the building of the Hong Kong- Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government announced on Tuesday.

The SAR government also said in a press statement that the construction of the bridge has been agreed "in principle" by the central government.

Aside from Macao, Hong Kong will invest 6.75 billion yuan (985 million dollars) while the Chinese mainland, including funds from the Central government and the Guangdong provincial government, will invest up to 7 billion yuan (1.02 billion dollars) on the project, according to the statement.

The rest will be paid through a financing arrangement jointly worked out by the three governments, and the construction of the bridge can be started no later than 2010, the SAR government also said.

The bridge will connect Zhuhai, a mainland coastal city neighboring Macao, to the rest of the Pearl River Delta area and will slash travel times to the two SARs. Currently only ferries connect Zhuhai and Macao with Hong Kong.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)