A five-year guidelines mapped out by north China's
Hebei Province stresses the need to accelerate rural highway
construction in a bid to promote local rural economic
development.
The province will invest a total of 17 billion yuan (about
US$2.125 billion) in road construction projects in its rural areas
during the country's 11th Five-Year Guidelines (2006-2010) for
National Economic and Social Development.
According to a work conference of the Hebei provincial
government in the sector of traffic reform, the money will be used
to build or rebuild roads linking thousands of villages across the
province, totaling of 46,000 kilometers.
Meanwhile, Hebei will build abundant new bridges and reconstruct
current bridges across the province with a total length of 35,000
meters.
During the 10th-Five-Year Guidelines (2001-2005) period,
the province built more than 51,000 kilometers of blacktop roads in
rural areas. The figure equals the total rural road length built in
the province over a 51-year period from 1949 to 2000.
By the end of 2005, a traffic network of blacktop roads have
shaped up in the province's rural areas, providing economically
backward counties and remote villages access to the outside
world.
China is making efforts to accelerate rural reform and
governments at all levels are working hard to improve agricultural
infrastructure, such as road construction, telecommunications and
electricity networks in rural areas.
(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2006)