The Beijing Municipal Government is planning an additional 6 billion yuan (US$882 million) capital investment, hoping to stimulate an additional 70-80 billion yuan of investment by companies and individuals, sources at the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission said yesterday.

A report in Wednesday's Beijing Morning Post said that one-third of the additional funds would be used to facilitate and promote investment in small and medium enterprises, and another third will be spent on transport infrastructure.

Jin Jun, vice head of the new technology department of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission said that the spending will mean more zero and low emission public buses on Beijing streets in 2009.

Two billion of the six billion yuan funds have been assigned to fund compensation and resettlement costs involved in the Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway project. The track-laying phase of the project will kick off in March 2009 after all land requisition is complete.

A quarter of the fund – or 1.5 billion yuan - will be used to renovate run-down buildings, relocate families living in shanty settlements, and replace heating equipment in single-story hutong houses.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting December 31, 2008)