Shandong Province, a major grain production base in east China, will spend 8.8 billion yuan (US$1 billion) on irrigation and water conservancy works this winter and next spring, a provincial government official said Thursday.  

The figure is one billion yuan (US$120 million) more than last year, and the projects to be launched are aimed at better irrigation, flood control and environmental protection, said the official with the provincial water resources department.

Among the 147,500 projects in the pipeline, priority will be given to those which are closely related the people's daily livelihood, need a comparatively small amount of investment and can produce good results quickly, he said.

Shandong has kept increasing investment in irrigation and water conservancy projects since 1998, and it is one of the provinces whose total investment in this field over the past five years remains the highest in the country.

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2003)