CHINA has put together a five-year transportation infrastructure investment plan that would continue heavy spending on highways, high-speed rail and airports after a record-setting 2022, reports Tokyo's Nikkei Asia.
The programme risks deepening the reliance of battered, debt-laden local economies on infrastructure for growth as land sales, previously a crucial source of income, remain in a slump.
The plan would expand expressways under the central government's purview to 130,000 kilometres by its final year of 2027, up 11 per cent from the end of 2021, adding to what is already the biggest such network in the world. By comparison, the US had about 98,000 kilometres of expressways as of 2020, based on data from the Federal Highway Administration.
One new highway opened this year in the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province. It had previously taken an hour and a half to reach a nearby city, 'but that's been cut to an hour' with the new road, said the operator of a nearby cafe.
SeaNews Turkey
The programme risks deepening the reliance of battered, debt-laden local economies on infrastructure for growth as land sales, previously a crucial source of income, remain in a slump.
The plan would expand expressways under the central government's purview to 130,000 kilometres by its final year of 2027, up 11 per cent from the end of 2021, adding to what is already the biggest such network in the world. By comparison, the US had about 98,000 kilometres of expressways as of 2020, based on data from the Federal Highway Administration.
One new highway opened this year in the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province. It had previously taken an hour and a half to reach a nearby city, 'but that's been cut to an hour' with the new road, said the operator of a nearby cafe.
SeaNews Turkey
