The National Development and Reform Commission says it's stepping up measures to revitalize China's sagging industrial Northeast. Zhou Jianping, the official in charge of the effort, says the government will invest 1.6 trillion yuan in about 130 major projects in the region.

Zhou says it will take about ten years to remake the Northeastern region into an economic pillar through the transfer of government functions and the reformation of SOEs. The northeast has been one of the regions hardest hit by China's recent economic slowdown.