An estimated 300,000 kilometers of roads are scheduled to be either built or upgraded in rural areas this year, with plans for a total of 1.2 million kilometers of new rural roads by 2010, Communications Minister Li Shenglin said yesterday.

The total amount of money to be invested in rural road construction this year is expected to exceed last year's total.

Li told a national teleconference in Beijing that communications departments at the provincial and county levels, responsible for road construction and maintenance, are required to give more financial support to rural road projects than they have previously.

The ministry is also planning to use more tax revenue to pay for rural roads.

"At least 24.8 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion) of funds raised by the vehicle purchase tax will be spent on rural roads this year, an increase of 2.1 billion yuan (US$271.3 million) from 2006," he said.

Investment from the central government will also include money from the national budget and treasury bonds, but a detailed breakdown of the amounts involved has not been released yet.

"The government will remain the major investor because rural road construction should never add to farmers' burdens," he said. The ministry has also encouraged the private sector to get involved in road building, and is now studying ways to use money from multiple sources.

Some counties have achieved good results by encouraging individuals and enterprises to make donations, offering to name roads after them in return for their help.

No foreign funds have been dedicated to rural road building because toll collection is not permitted on rural roads, said Zhang Dehua, director of rural highway division under the ministry's highway department.

"Building rural roads is totally a public welfare undertaking for the countryside, since investors are unlikely to see financial returns from rural roads," Zhang said.

He added that bank loans are rarely used to pay for roads for the same reason.

However, the Fujian Provincial Department of Communications recently experimented with funding from outside sources by tying rural road projects to expressway projects and was granted loans from the World Bank. The loans included US$100 million for rural roads, and will be paid back by the returns from expressways, he said.

Last year, a combined 151.3 billion yuan (US$19.5 billion) was spent on building or upgrading 325,000 kilometers of roads in the countryside. Efforts to extend rural roads have made it easier for farmers to travel.

This year, the ministry expects rural roads to play a bigger role in the Party's plan to develop the agricultural sector.

(China Daily February 27, 2007)