- BEIJING, (AFP) - China expects
to have 140 million automobiles plying its roads by 2020, seven times more
than now, fueling demand for transportation infrastructure and services,
state media reports.
-
- Li Xinghua, deputy director of the Communication Ministry's
Comprehensive Planning Department, predicted that China's auto population
would eventually reach around 250 million, or about 150 cars per 1,000
people.
-
- Government statistics show that China produced a record
four million autos in 2003, when the number of private cars grew by 80
percent thanks to the country's strong economic advance and growing middle
class.
-
- It is estimated that this year's production will top
five million units, making China the world's third-largest auto manufacturer
after the United States and Japan.
-
- That demand has been coupled with the unveiling of ambitious
expansion plans by both international and domestic auto players.
-
- Xinhua news agency cited Li as saying the fast growth
of the auto industry was putting increasing pressure on transportation
infrastructure and fixing the discrepancy was the top task for the ministry.
-
- Chinese vice minister of communications Weng Mengyong
said his office would adopt "substantial, effective approaches"
in the construction of major national freeways to connect most Chinese
cities to cope with the number of cars.
-
- He predicted that the current construction of highways
between provinces in western China, as well as those in the Yangtze River
Delta in the east and Pearl River Delta in the south would be completed
by 2010.
-
- Statistics from the ministry show that China has already
built a 30,000 kilometre (18,600 mile) network of highways, the second
longest in the world.
-
- Market analysts cited by Xinhua said China was in the
launch phase of another round of economic growth and the rapid development
of the auto industry would be a major driving force.
-
- Copyright © 2004 Agence France Presse. All rights
reserved. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1540&ncid=1540&e=10
&u=/afp/20040903/sc_afp/china_auto_transport_040903025523
|