A national throughway passenger and goods transportation network will be established by the year 2010, according to the just finished national work conference on road transportation.

In the next five years, transportation on the key roadways will be greatly improved, and vehicles will be able to travel 400 to 500 km within 12 hours and 1,000 km within 24 hours, said sources with the conference.

The added value of road transportation will take a bigger shareof the country's gross domestic product, from the current 1.9 percent to 2.3 percent in 2010.

China will start the construction of 45 national-level road hubs in the next ten years, and the number of stations for passenger transportation at various levels will be increased to 8,600, and those for goods transportation will go up to 2,300.

In addition to the national throughway passenger and goods transportation network, China will also build a transportation network to cover the vast rural areas and an information network to serve the modern road transportation.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/31/2001)