China's 2016 fixed-asset investment in transportation tops $413b

BEIJING - China's fixed-asset investment in transportation last year reached 2.85 trillion yuan ($413 billion), the Ministry of Transport (MOT) said Thursday.

Of the investment, 801.5 billion yuan was in railways, 1.78 trillion yuan in highways, 77 billion yuan went to civil aviation and 189.4 billion yuan to waterways and other infrastructure construction, according to the MOT.

Fixed-asset investment includes capital spent on infrastructure, property, machinery and other physical assets.

China's total railway operation length reached 121,000 km -- the world's second-longest -- by the end of 2015, including 19,000 kilometers of high-speed railway, ranking top in the world, official data showed.

China plans to invest 3.5 trillion yuan in railway construction during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), according to the white paper titled "Development of China's Transport" released last December.

By 2020, China will increase the length of high-speed railways in operation to 30,000 km, connecting more than 80 percent of its big cities.

The country will also renovate 30,000 km of expressways and provide tarmac and cement roads and shuttle bus services for administrative villages with the necessary conditions, and all villages will have access to mail service, the white paper said.