The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, on July 31 announced an outlay of 151.6 billion yuan to fund ten key projects in west China, as part of maintaining momentum on the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan on Western Development".

"As we further the full implementation of the regional development strategy nationwide, the government has never slacked off the western China development drive," Ma Kai, minister of NDRC was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Securities News.

The ten key projects are:
· Building two railways in Yunnan Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region running between Dali and Ruili and between Tunkui and Beikui;
· Refurbishing the railways between Baotou and Xi'an and between Xining and Golmud;
· Building two roads, the first linking Tianshui and Dingxi and the other joining Duyun to Xinzhai;
· Relocating Kunming Airport, Yunnan Province;
· Building branch line airports;
· Building hydroelectric power stations in Dagangshan and Jishi;
· Building a Pengwei 60-ton PTA plant in Chongqing Municipality;
· Building refined oil plants in Guangxi and Sichuan Province;
· Expanding the use of large coal mines in Inner Mongolia;
· General education and public hygiene improvements

"Those projects will vastly improve regional infrastructure, bolster local related industries and allow the development of social undertakings to be facilitated in an all-round manner," a source from NDRC told Shanghai Securities News.

82 projects were opened last year with a total investment of 1,152.6 billion yuan.

(China.org.cn by He Shan, August 4, 2007)