Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China will spend 5.7 billion yuan (about US$703 million) on highway construction across the plateau region this year.

Zhao Shijun, chief of the Tibet Autonomous regional bureau of communications, said that this year they will start construction on 21 highway projects and continue to build nine other road projects including upgrading the highway connecting Nepal.

Known as the "roof of the world", Tibet has long had poor roadways.

Up to now, highways have still not reached more than 1,000 villages in Tibet, while only half the region's roads in 73 counties have been topped with asphalt, said Zhao.

The central government invested 14.65 billion yuan (about US$1.81 billion) in improving transport conditions in Tibet over the past five years building and upgrading roads and highways with a total length of 12,926 km.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2006)