时政英文学英语之102：继续加大基建投资

原文见More infrastructure investment planned。

Photo taken on Sep 16, 2012 show the road view of Kanas（喀纳斯） in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.  

A total of 1.8 trillion yuan ($260 billion) is expected to be invested in road and rail transport infrastructure projects（公路铁路基础设施项目） next year, Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng said at an annual working conference on Wednesday.

"The country has stepped up efforts to bolster（扶持） areas of weakness in infrastructure construction, and has increased support for land use, sea use and environmental assessments," Li said.

Much of the investment will go toward the building or renovation（升级改造） of 200,000 kilometers of roadways in rural regions, and efforts will be strengthened to ensure economically struggling（经济困难村镇） villages are connected with other regions, he said.

One of the ministry's main targets for next year is to continue supporting the construction of roads in underdeveloped areas（欠发达地区） so as to ensure they have highway access（接入高速） by 2020, he said.

Official statistics showed 30.46 million rural residents still lived below the national poverty line as of the end of 2017.

So far this year, 88.3 billion yuan has been invested in building rural roads to help alleviate poverty（脱贫）, with the amount invested up 14.6 percent year-on-year, the ministry said.

Yang Xinzheng, an expert at the China Academy of Transportation Science（交通部科学研究院）, said, "Better transportation will lead to more effective development and utilization of minerals（矿产）, energy and tourist resources in poor areas, thus accelerating the pace of poverty eradication（加快脱贫步伐）."

In Ningxiang county, Hubei province, 2,000 km of new rural roads have spurred（刺激） tourism, created 12,000 jobs and increased average per capita annual incomes by 15,000 yuan, he added.

There were 4.01 million km of rural roads in China by the end of last year, accounting for 84 percent of the country's road network（路网）. An average of 200,000 km of rural roads have been built or renovated each year between 2013 and 2018, according to the ministry.

In another development, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic regulator, gave the go-ahead（批准） on Tuesday for a high-speed railway project linking Xi'an and Yan'an in Shaanxi province, which will have a total investment of 55.16 billion yuan.

The 292-km line will be designed for a top speed of 350 km/h, and construction is expected to take nearly a half decade to complete.

China has increased infrastructure spending on airports and railways recently to stabilize investment and spur slowing economic growth.

Xinhua contributed to this story.