ADB grants China railways policy reform support
By Xinhua
Updated: 2004-05-21 10:11

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$400,000 technical assistance grant to help the People's Republic of China to review the potential impacts of accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the country's railway sector.

The technical assistance will assess the Ministry of Railway's preparedness to address the impacts of the WTO accession and recommend action and policy reform support to meet these challenges, the Manila-based ADB said Thursday.

China is restructuring railways to separate government functions from enterprise functions and rail from non-rail functions, rationalize staff, spin off peripheral operations, and reform railway investment and financing.

China's accession to WTO in December 2001 will result in intensified competition in the transport sector and change the structure of transport demand as the government is committed to following WTO rules and to opening railway freight markets and other services such as warehousing and freight forwarding to foreign partners.

Policy dialogue has been a major element of ADB assistance to the railway sector, and has complimented lending operations.

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