The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is giving a loan of US$300 million to fund development of a road network in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The Western Guangxi Roads Development Project, which will link the region and nearby Vietnam, is estimated to cost 1.57 billion U.S. dollars and be completed in more than five years.

Xiaohong Yang, senior financial analyst of ADB's East Asia Department, said the project would benefit 2.3 million people, 80 percent of them from ethnic minorities and 30 percent living on less than one dollar a day, particularly in the border area.

The project will involve construction of a 177-kilometer expressway; upgrading of 1,060 kilometers of local and border roads; improvement of transport services through construction of 50 township bus stations and implementation of passenger bus route licensing reforms.

Yang said the Project constituted part of a key transport corridor in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), contributing to improved infrastructure connections between China and Vietnam.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2007)