| The central government will increase road construction investment to
central and western China next year in support of the central government's overall plans
to develop the region, a top official said on Monday. Li Juchang, vice-minister of the
Ministry of Communications said his ministry is drafting plans for construction work
across the region.
Priorities will be given to construction of key roads in the region, the official said.
All those projects will be open to public bidding to choose contractors to avoid the
rampant corruption in the contracting process, Li said.
Li described bidding as a very useful means to plan road construction work in a
market-oriented economy.
On the ministry's work this year, Li said all projects had been carried out smoothly.
During the first 11 months of the year, the ministry invested 186 billion yuan (US$22
billion) in road and related infrastructure construction work, 6 billion yuan (US$726
million) higher than the planned 180 billion yuan (US$21 billion).
The investment mainly targeted the eastern and coastal regions, especially the
construction of some trans-provincial highways.
Investment to China's central and western regions also increased, 6.4 and 6 per cent
higher respectively from last year.
China's overall road length has reached 130 million kilometres through November of this
year, and the total length of highways is 10,000 kilometres, the official said.
On road quality, Li said he is confident about the quality and supervision of the
projects.
He said strict quality-control measures on road construction had been drawn up. |
