Economy

ADB calls for bigger China role in developing transport infrastructure

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-09 11:03

BEIJING - Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President Bindu N. Lohani called on China Monday to play a bigger role in bringing seamless transportation systems to Asia.

Lohani made the remarks in a speech at the Second High Level Regional Workshop of the China-ADB Knowledge Sharing Platform on Transport Infrastructure, which began in Beijing Monday.

"In the Asia Pacific region, investments in transport have not kept pace with the rapid growth in demand," Lohani told some 80 officials from China, Pakistan, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and ADB.

"With its great experience of building the national transport network,China has the potential to play an even greater role in the future in bringing about seamless transportation across the Asian region," he said.

The ADB estimates the Asia Pacific region needs $8 trillion for infrastructure construction over the next 10 years.

Lohani quoted an ADB study that said a further $204 billion of investment is required in regional transport infrastructure, with the Asian Highway and the Trans-Asian Railway accounting for more than 60 percent of it.

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By 2009, China's highway network stretched 3.9 million km, and its railway network was one of the world's longest with 86,000 km of track, both figures having quadrupled since 1998, when the ADB began financing transport infrastructure in China.

The ADB's support for expressway and railway construction in China comprises of 27 loans worth $6.8 billion and 41 technical assistance projects.

"While the volume of ADB financing was small relative to China's, the ADB has played a useful role in helping China establish effective models for developing infrastructure on a large scale while incorporating international best practices," Lohani said.

Despite its great success in infrastructure construction, he said, China still faces challenges in transport infrastructure, such as transport for country's poor and disadvantaged people.