China to put 200b yuan in railway construction by 2015

The railway infrastructure projects are expected to attract 200 billion yuan ($31 billion) investments, including private capitals, during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period, Economic Information Daily reported Monday citing an official at the National Development and Reform Commission.

The property development model is encouraged by the NDRC to attract enterprises, including private capitals, join in the construction of inter-city railways, so as to diversify the investment channels.

Some centrally administrated State-owned Enterprises, coordinated by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, set their footprints in the railway infrastructure construction field.

The Ministry of Railways issued Implementing Opinions on Encouraging and Guiding Private Capital to Invest in Railways to encourage and guide the private capital participate the railways construction projects.

The railway infrastructure investments was 148.7 billion yuan, dropped 38.6 percent in the first half, comparing with the same period of last year, said a Ministry of Railways statistic released recently. The statistic also showed the investment in the first half is only 33.8 percent of the planned 440 billion yuan total investment.