An estimated 300,000 kilometers of roads are scheduled to be
either built or upgraded in rural areas this year, with plans for a
total of 1.2 million kilometers of new rural roads by 2010,
Communications Minister Li Shenglin said yesterday.
The total amount of money to be invested in rural road
construction this year is expected to exceed last year's total.
Li told a national teleconference in Beijing that communications
departments at the provincial and county levels, responsible for
road construction and maintenance, are required to give more
financial support to rural road projects than they have
previously.
The ministry is also planning to use more tax revenue to pay for
rural roads.
"At least 24.8 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion) of funds raised by
the vehicle purchase tax will be spent on rural roads this year, an
increase of 2.1 billion yuan (US$271.3 million) from 2006," he
said.
Investment from the central government will also include money
from the national budget and treasury bonds, but a detailed
breakdown of the amounts involved has not been released yet.
"The government will remain the major investor because rural
road construction should never add to farmers' burdens," he said.
The ministry has also encouraged the private sector to get involved
in road building, and is now studying ways to use money from
multiple sources.
Some counties have achieved good results by encouraging
individuals and enterprises to make donations, offering to name
roads after them in return for their help.
No foreign funds have been dedicated to rural road building
because toll collection is not permitted on rural roads, said Zhang
Dehua, director of rural highway division under the ministry's
highway department.
"Building rural roads is totally a public welfare undertaking
for the countryside, since investors are unlikely to see financial
returns from rural roads," Zhang said.
He added that bank loans are rarely used to pay for roads for
the same reason.
However, the Fujian Provincial Department of Communications
recently experimented with funding from outside sources by tying
rural road projects to expressway projects and was granted loans
from the World Bank. The loans included US$100 million for rural
roads, and will be paid back by the returns from expressways, he
said.
Last year, a combined 151.3 billion yuan (US$19.5 billion) was
spent on building or upgrading 325,000 kilometers of roads in the
countryside. Efforts to extend rural roads have made it easier for
farmers to travel.
This year, the ministry expects rural roads to play a bigger
role in the Party's plan to develop the agricultural sector.
(China Daily February 27, 2007)
