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Premier making an inventory of Chinese economy (3) 
   CCTV.COM   2003-03-05 09:03:34   
    By concentrating our resources, China completed a number of key infrastructure projects of nationwide significance. The country built water conservancy projects on a scale larger than any other time since the founding of New China. The investment in these projects nationwide totaled 356.2 billion yuan for the five years, which was equal to the total investment in this field from 1950 through 1997 after adjusting for price changes, according to the report.

    A number of key water conservancy projects were launched or completed. Work on reinforcing 35,000 km of river embankments was started. Over 3,500 km of main dikes of the Yangtze River and nearly 1,000 km of dikes of the Yellow River have been reinforced, and their capacity to withstand floods has been greatly increased.

    The second phase of the Three Gorges water control project on the Yangtze River, which has attracted world attention, will soon be completed; water control facilities such as the one at Xiaolangdi on the Yellow River became operational, and construction on the South-North Water Diversion Project was begun.

    Transport developed on an unprecedented scale, and a comprehensive modern transport system began to take shape. In these five years, China invested 1.2343 trillion yuan in highway building, which was equal to 170 percent of the figure for the period from 1950 through 1997 after adjusting for price changes.

    The total length of highways open to traffic increased from 1.23 million km in 1997 to 1.76 million km in 2002, of which expressways increased from 4,771 km to 25,200 km, lifting China from the 39th to the second place in the world.

    Railway length increased from 65,969 km to 71,500 km. Over the past five years, construction of 5,944 km of new railway lines, of which 4,603 km are double-track and 5,704 km are electrified, was completed. A total of 50 airports were either newly built or expanded. The annual cargo handling capacity of dock berths for 10,000 DWT or larger ships increased by 144 million tons.

    Construction of postal and telecommunications facilities greatly expanded. The length of installed long-distance optical cables increased from 150,000 km in 1997 to 470,000 km in 2002, and the number of fixed-line and mobile phone subscribers increased from 83.54 million to 421 million, ranking China first in the world.

    Construction in the energy sector was further intensified. The installed power-generating capacity increased from 254 million kw in 1997 to 353 million kw in 2002, the report says.


Editor: Han Ling  Source:Xinhua


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