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| AsiaViews, Edition: 48/VI/March2010 |
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| High-speed railway case pushed |
AS Chinese policy makers endeavor to whip up domestic demand to maintain steady and rapid economic growth, Yu Zhuomin believes he has found a right path: the high-speed rail.
"Just look at the new Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway," said Zhuo, a deputy from central China's Hubei Province to the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.
"Its effect on boosting regional economic and cultural exchanges is immeasurable."
The annual session of the NPC starts tomorrow.
The opening of the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway has accelerated the integration of the Pearl River Delta, the country's economic powerhouse in the south, and the central provinces of Hubei and Hunan by greatly shortening travel time.
Before the high-speed railway was put into use in December, it took 11 hours to travel more than 1,000 kilometers between the two cities by train but now it takes only three hours.
"To the provinces and regions that build high-speed railways, the network has becomes a vanguard for local economic and social development," said Yu, who is in Beijing to attend the session.
China has about 3,300 kilometers of operational high-speed railways, on which bullet trains gallop at an average speed of 350 kilometers per hour, and plans to expand the network to 13,000km by 2012, according to the Ministry of Railways.
As part of the 4-trillion-yuan (US$585.7-billion) economic stimulus package, China invested about 600 billion yuan in railway construction last year.
The government has earmarked a record 823.5 billion yuan for 2010 to further expand its railway network, with a number of high-speed railways under construction. |
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| Shanghai Daily News, Xinhua, 04 March 2010 |
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