China's railway network has reached a total length of nearly 70,000 kilometers, ranking it first in Asia, said an economic expert at a forum on infrastructure reform Friday in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province.

Wen Li, a researcher with the Ministry of Railways, said that about 12,000 kilometers of railway in China are electrified, among the nine countries in the world which have an electrified railway length over 10,000 kilometers.

Railway transportation makes up 6.8 percent of China's total transportation volume, according to the expert. China's railway sector has a total of 509 billion yuan in assets, in which 98 percent are state-owned.

Wen called for a diversified fund-raising system to attract more investment to railway construction.

"Railway transportation prices should also be reset," he added.

(Xinhua 11/04/2000)