BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- China is speeding up construction on major infrastructure projects to mitigate the economic impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic.
The construction on 89.1 percent of 11,000 key projects (those in hard-hit Hubei Province are not included) had been restarted as of March 20, Ou Hong, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a press conference Saturday.
In breakdown, 97.8 percent of the 533 key transportation projects supervised by the NDRC have been under construction, with all the major railway projects resuming operation, said Zheng Jian, another official with the NDRC.
The construction on some 97 percent of major highway and waterway projects, 87 percent of airport projects, and 86 percent of water conservancy projects also resumed, said Ou.
The officials pledged efforts to speed up the resumption of key projects by solving the problems of labor shortage, transportation and supply of raw materials with accurate measures.
Ou also noted that the country will fast-track fund allocations from the central budget and increase special-purpose bonds for local governments to bolster infrastructure construction.
As of Friday, over 1 trillion yuan (about 144 billion U.S. dollars) worth of special-purpose bonds were issued to major projects such as transportation facilities, water conservancy works and industrial parks.
In the meantime, the construction of "new infrastructure" projects such as 5G networks and data centers will be expedited, he said.
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