China is to double its investment in road construction in the western region in the next five years, Vice Minister of Communications Zhang Chunxian said Thursday.

Zhang said at the just-concluded China Western Forum that his ministry have reduced road construction investment in the eastern region by half this year to support the less-developed western region.

The ministry will also invest one billion yuan (about US$ 121 million) in the next five years to solve technical problems in the construction of transportation facilities in the western region.

Statistics show that in the coming 10 years China is to allocate some 800 billion yuan (US$ 96.7 billion) to build some 350,000 kilometers of roads in western region.

(Xinhua 09/06/2001)