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China outlines priority industry investment plans

BEIJING: China will invest 5.1 trillion yuan ($613.7 billion) in priority industries during the 1996-2000 period out of a total of nine trillion yuan earmarked for the state-owned sector, a newspaper said on Saturday.

Priority sectors under the recently approved 1995-2000 Five-Year Plan were energy, transportation, machinery, petrochemicals, electronics and automobiles, the Futures Herald said, quoting researchers affiliated with the State Planning Commission.

Investment in the energy sector over the five-year period would exceed two trillion yuan, accounting for 25 percent of investment in the state sector, it said. About 1.13 trillion yuan would be allocated to the transportation sector, accounting for nearly 14 percent of the investment.

Between 500 billion and 600 billion yuan would be invested in the machinery sector, emphasising construction and agriculture equipment. The petrochemical sector would receive 460 billion yuan, followed by the electronics sector with 429 billion yuan and the vehicle sector with 280 billion yuan.

The remaining 280 billion yuan was earmarked for the primary sector, including agriculture and raw materials processing.-Reuter