The transportation network in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will be improved over the next five years at a cost of more than 230 billion yuan (about US$32.8 billion), said a local official said on Thursdsay.

The network includes railways, highways, waterways and air facilities, said Yang Daoxi, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China regional committee.

According to Yang, 115 billion yuan will be spent to begin building 1,450 kilometers of rail lines and complete 1,100 km.

Another 100 billion yuan will go into highways, with work to start on 1,800 km of expressway and finish on 1,700 km of expressway. By 2012, Guangxi will have 100,000 km of roads open to traffic.

For water transport, 15 billion yuan in investment will be divided as follows: 12 billion yuan for harbors and 3 billion yuan for river ports.

Finally, 3.5 billion yuan will be spent to improve the two airports in Nanning and Guilin.

Over the past five years, 73 billion yuan has been invested in highways and waterways. More than 37,000 km of roads were built and regional port throughput was increased by 50.12 million tons, Yang said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2008)