Here is the Press Release from Sichuan Provincial People's Government on?construction of an integrated hub of communications in West China:

Long being known as "a land of abundance" located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Sichuan is privileged with a geographic importance as a hinterland in the southwest China. Bordering 7 provinces (districts and cities) and combining southwest, northwest and the middle part of China, Sichuan proves to be a vital intersection and traffic corridor connecting southern and central China, binding the southwest and northwest, communicating the central and southeastern Asia, and also an important distribution center for various elements and commodities in west China and the southwestern areas in particular.

Since the founding of New China and especially after the policy of reform and opening-up was implemented, transportation construction in Sichuan Province has witnessed considerable progress with the vigorous supports from the state, playing a significant role in promoting the social and economic development in this area. But overall, there is still large room left for improvement and bottleneck constraints still draw attention as the current situation fails to meet the requirements of social and economic development in Sichuan Province.

?In December, 2007, the fourth plenary meeting of the ninth Sichuan Provincial Committee of CCP was held to meet the challenge and, based on a comprehensive scrutiny of the provincial reality and also from a height of the west and the whole nation as well, the important strategic decision of constructing an integrated hub of communications in west China was made to embrace the future development of Sichuan Province.

This significant strategy aims to exert an influence on the west and at the same time integrate into a broader concept of the whole nation as well as the entire world, namely, the need of provincial development has been taken into consideration in the meantime the requirements of promoting the transportation construction in nearby provinces (districts and cities) as well as other provinces (districts and cities) in the west of China are also satisfied as a result of a cleared pass to interconnect them all. On the other hand, the provincial transportation development is planned in the whole picture of national road network in order to improve the current situation of being at the end of the whole system and create a geographic advantage. Sichuan’s function as a transportation corridor connecting Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and Europe should also be fully recognized and it should also be embraced into the Pan-Asian railway network to construct a new Eurasia Land Bridge and clear the pass for opening up to the international community.

?It should be said that the construction of an integrated hub of communications in the west requires not only a transformation from "difficult mountain paths" to "cleared broadways" in Sichuan but an upgrading from a "western end" to a "western hub" in the national road network, from "a self-use province" to "a shared west" and from "an inland basin" to "a gateway to the west", therefore basically creating the provincial advantage as a vigorous support in the national railway network of "eight longitudinal lines and eight transverse lines" and the national highway system of "five longitudinal lines and seven transverse lines", and the advantages of social and economic development of Sichuan Province in west China.

From this perspective, the construction of an integrated hub of communications in the west is a fundamental strategy of Sichuan building an economic development highland in west China, a pioneering strategy of realizing a great-leap-forward development and an elemental strategy that exerts a huge impact on the provincial development for centuries to come. The whole effort starts with a carefully worked-out plan. In accordance with the general concept of "clearing passage, building up a hub, improving the network, upgrading functions and supporting development" as well as the requirement of "conducting in a systematic, scientific and feasible manner", we have spent more than a year bringing out Plan for Constructing An Integrated Hub of Communications in West (hereinafter referred to as Plan) and other 9 special-purpose planning programs concerning the construction of railways, highways, national and provincial trunk highways, rural roads, inland waterway transportation as well as airport layout and constructions.

We have also actively and in a timely manner integrated our planning effort into that of the state’s general planning on post-disaster restoration and construction and obtained vigorous support from relevant ministries and commissions of the state. Some major projects are successfully included into the national planning, for instance, railway projects have all entered Middle and Long-term Planning for Railway Network (Revised 2008) of the state. It is clearly proposed in the Planning that strong efforts should be made to construct a modern transportation and logistics system that is highly efficient, convenient and safe to form an integrated hub of communications connecting all directions under the guideline of building passageways out of Sichuan as the emphasis, building Chengdu main hub as a focus and building regional secondary hub and knot cities as a support.

The top priority stipulated in the Planning: act upon the concept of "stressing the south, enhancing the east, expanding the north and clearing the west" and speed up the construction of the great transportation passageways into and out of Sichuan Province.

The southern passage: focus on the construction of railways and roads between Sichuan and Yunnan as well as Sichuan and Guizhou, link Pearl River Delta and Beibu Bay area and open up a seaway passage in the southwest, thus creating a shortcut to further open up that connects Pan-Asian great railway.

The northern passage: focus on the construction of railways and roads between Sichuan and Shanxi as well as Sichuan and Gansu, connect areas around Bohai Sea and improve the communications with northwestern China, northern China and northeastern regions, thus forming a great passageway linking Eurasia Land Bridge.

The eastern passage: focus on the construction of railways, roads and waterways between Sichuan and Chongqing and connect Yangtze River Delta areas to improve communications with Chongqing, central China and eastern China, thus creating a great waterway passage network.

The western passage: focus on the construction of railways and highways between Sichuan and Tibet as well as Sichuan and Qinghai to improve communications with the northwestern regions, thus achieving the effect of boosting the social and economic development in the minority areas. Meanwhile, hard work should be done to improve and upgrade the functions of Chengdu as the major hub so as to crate an integrated transportation system that centers on Chengdu with far-reaching influences. We will rely on the 12 regional secondary communications hubs and the 8 key transportation knot cities within the province and accelerate the rebuilding of national and provincial trunk roads to form 7 national and provincial trunk roads leading out of the province and the 5 economic lines of Jiuzhaigou, northeastern Sichuan, southern Sichuan, central Sichuan and western Sichuan. We will actively develop waterway transportation and reinforce the efforts of integrating airline resources and adjusting airport arrangements to realize the organic connection of railway, road, airway and waterway transportation.

Major objectives of Planning: up to 2020, the provincial railway operation mileage will reach 8000km, highway traffic 8200km, port handling capacity 3 million standard containers as well as 17 level-4 waterway passages, 17 airports and 185 airlines, forming a great passageway into and out of Sichuan Province that includes 18 railways, 21 highways and 2 waterway passages.

As a result, the hub function and radiation effect will be comprehensively upgraded and an integrated hub of communications in the west will then be formed. For more than 2 years, we have being availing of the great opportunity of western expansion, post-disaster restoration as well as domestic demand propelling to innovate systems and mechanisms, enhance work methods, integrate strengths gathered from all directions and vigorously promote the enforcement of the Planning, calling for an enthusiastic endeavor to get involved in communications construction with staged achievements being realized.

Breakthrough progress has been made in railway construction: currently 5 projects have been completed with railway operation mileage reaching 3258km. Accumulated number of commenced projects totals 16 and railway mileage under construction within Sichuan Province reaches 1708km with an investment of over RMB190billion. Another 7 major passenger railway projects linking Chengdu and Guizhou, Chengdu and Tibet and Chengdu and Chongqing will also start this year, bringing the total mileage of construction up to over 3300km. After completion, railway operation mileage will double to exceed 6000km.

Historic breakthrough has been made in highway construction: the number of newly commenced expressways totals 20 with a mileage reaching 2503km, already exceeding the existing mileage open to traffic. At present, the total number of provincial expressways under construction has amounted to 24 and the mileage 3020km with an investment of over RMB200billion. It is expected that the year 2012 will see the expressway mileage open to traffic hit a high of over 3800km, twice as long as the number registered for 2007. Construction and development of national and provincial highways as well as rural roads will be accelerated so that by the year 2012 Grade-2 roads among the national and provincial trunk roads will take up 80% of the total, up by 27% in comparison with the number in 2008. The year 2012 will also witness the completion of 17000km of unfinished roads in rural areas to basically solve the problem. Technical grade and traffic capacity of provincial highways as well as the integral service level will also be upgraded by a large margin.

Waterway transportation is developed at a rapid pace: renovation of Yangtze River at Yibin-Luzhou section has been completed, the whole Jialing River canalization has been sped up, preliminary works for Min River avionic exploitation project have been fully activated and Luzhou and Yibin port constructions have been accelerated so that container handling capacity at provincial ports has soared from the 50000 standard containers in 2007 to the current 500000 standard containers, which is expected to hit 1.5 million in 2012.

Civil aviation construction is expedited: Chengdu Shuangliu airport runway No.2 has been basically completed, thus ranking as the sixth largest hub airport in China that has a handled volume of passengers exceeding 20million person-times as well as the fourth airport that puts 2 runways into operation. Airline services are realized in Kangding airport, Nanchong airport and Xichang airport have been renovated and expanded, and Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong airport expansion project Phase 3 has been commenced. We will also try to start the construction of Yading airport and Aba Hongyuan airport as well so that there will be 13 provincial airports open to traffic by the year 2012.

As the construction of an integrated hub of communications in the west proves to be a historical task to break the bottleneck constraints and realize an accelerated, scientific and sound development in the service of all people, we make commitment to rally closer around the Party Central Committee with Hu Jintao as secretary-general, hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characters, thoroughly apply the scientific outlook on development with the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, vigorously promote the construction of major communications infrastructures and actively explore new methods of accelerating the development of communications and transportation in light of the new situation in order to make continuous breakthroughs in the construction of the integrated hub of communications.

We believe that under the firm leadership of Central Committee and State Council, with the vigorous support of various ministries and commissions of the state as well as the positive assistance offered by friendly provinces (districts and cities) and broad participation of all walks of life, brave and diligent Sichuan people will further carry on the earthquake-fighting spirit, seize the golden opportunity and forge ahead so as to realize the brand-new leap of communication development in Sichuan and eventually change the "difficult mountain paths" situation, a dream that has been cherished for thousands of years.