The province's fixed assets investment has increased by approximately 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) on a yearly basis over the past five years, during which period construction on more than 100 key infrastructure projects involving highways, railways, airport, water conservation and construction and reform of urban and rural power grids had been completed or were kicked off.

Government statistics show that the province's fixed assets investment totaled 97.5 billion yuan (US$11.78 billion) in2002, up 14.6 percent over the previous year.

This fixed assets investment contributed 4.5 percentage points to the total economic growth rate for the same year.

Shaanxi registered 202 billion yuan (US$24.4 billion) in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2002, a rise of 9.5 percent over the previous year and higher than the national average for the sixth year running.

At present, major cities and 97 percent of the province's villages have been linked up by highways. New rail routes, including Baotou-Shenmu, Xi'an-Yan'an, Xi'an-Ankang and Shenmu-Yan'an, have opened to traffic since the 1990s. More railways such asthe Xi'an-Hefei section of the Xi'an-Nanjing railway, and the Baoji-Lanzhou section of the double track line of the Lianyungang-Lanzhou railway are expected to be completed in the near future.

With increasing investment, the power industry has also grown rapidly in the province. Currently, Shaanxi boasts a total installed capacity of 7.67 million kilowatts and plans to build a coal-generated electricity base with an installed gross capacity of 22.8 million kilowatts.

Construction on the base, said to be the largest of its kind in China, will begin early this year, government sources said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2003)