Investment in roads and water routes in 2016 is forecast to reach 1.8 trillion yuan ($275.35 billion), Transport Minister Yang Chuantang said Thursday when he attended the fourth session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, media reports said. [Special coverage]
Investment in railways will approach 800 billion yuan in 2016, according to Yang, domestic news portal www.stcn.com reported Thursday.
The total investment in railways, roads and water routes will reach 2.6 trillion yuan, he said.
Yang noted that infrastructure construction is a vital part of supply-side reform and plays a key role in improving living standards and stabilizing growth, the report said.
Yang also said that regulations and rules on the management of private car-hailing services are expected to come soon, according to media reports.
The Ministry of Transport solicited public opinions on the draft regulations for the taxi industry in October 2015, with the aim of effectively banning private cars from doing business via online car-hailing apps.
Local governments could relate these rules to their local situations to regulate the sector, which offers much development room for the governments, Yang was quoted as saying by news portal news.cnstock.com.
"The relevant documents were rolled out almost five months ago, and I hope the official rules could come out 'the sooner, the better'," he was quoted as saying in the report.
