BEIJING: The country will strive to ensure a total investment of over 1 trillion yuan ($139 billion) in water conservancy development this year, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.
Vice-Minister Liu Weiping announced the new target at a news conference on Tuesday, as the ministry has surpassed the previous target of making 800 billion yuan in such investments.
From January to September, a total of 823.6 billion yuan had been directed into developing water conservancy projects across the country, up 64.1 percent from the same period last year, he noted.
He said the ministry has also achieved two other targets — to start construction on at least 30 of the 55 major water conservancy projects the country has planned to develop and six new large-scale irrigated areas — which were set earlier this year in an executive meeting of the State Council, the country’s Cabinet. As of the end of September, the number of water conservancy projects under construction reached 37,700, the total planned investment for which stands at 1.9 trillion yuan, he added.
“The accomplishment of the three targets three months ahead of schedule has made significant contributions to stabilizing macroeconomic performance and improving people’s well-being,” he said. He said roughly 2.1 million people have been employed over the projects, including over 1.7 million laborers from rural China.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
