The government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has decided
to invest 420 billion yuan (US$ 50.6 billion) in fixed assets
during the country's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) period.
From the total
sum, 100 billion yuan will be used to build 70 key projects
in the areas of infrastructure, bio-environment and pillar
industries, said Han Xueqi, an official of the Xinjiang Regional
Development Planning Commission.
Xinjiang, an arid
area, will build a number of key irrigation projects, expand
the use of underground water and promote spray, drip and other
technologies that save water for farming. It plans to prospect
for a total of 50 billion cubic meters of water resources
in the coming five years in addition to building water conservation
projects for 34 large irrigation areas.
The region will
also build six highways and form a highway transportation
network which links Xinjiang with Tibet, Gansu and Qinghai
provinces and leads to countries in central and western Asia,
Han said.
Xinjiang pledged
to become China's largest base for producing quality cotton,
grapes, tomatoes, fruit and oil and natural gas by 2010.
(People's Daily
09/25/2000)
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