China's Ministry of Agriculture announced on Tuesday that it has signed an agreement in Beijing with China Mobile to invest 70 billion yuan (US$10.24 billion) in next three years on improving the telecommunications networks in Chinese rural areas.

The country's leading carrier would endeavor to include more than 10,000 villages nationwide each year in telecommunication networks in the next three years, according to the agreement.

This program would help all the Chinese villages to enjoy mobile phone services by 2012, said the Beijing-based firm.

The company did not reveal other details of the agreement.

China has more than 600,000 villages across the country.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2009)