New roads for China

China will invest hundreds of billions of yuan in constructing rural roads over the next five years, aiming to provide more bitumen and cement roads for rural people. The Minister of Communications, Li Shenglin, made the announcement at a meeting Sunday in Beijing. He added that relevant bodies will give more capital support to rural construction in the future. He also noted that road construction should proceed in accordance with relevant policy and laws, and the destruction of farmland is strictly forbidden.

The Chinese government plans to build a total of 180,000km of road, 130,000km of which will be bitumen and cement roads. Most of the road projects are centred in areas that are either home to China’s ethnic groups, border areas, poor regions or major grain producing areas.