12 FAI projects worth US$20.5b approved

Source: Xinhua | 2017-05-19

CHINA’S top economic planner said yesterday that it approved 12 fixed-asset investment projects worth a total of 141.6 billion yuan (US$20.5 billion) in April.

The projects were mainly in energy, water conservation and transport, said Meng Wei, spokeswoman for the National Development and Reform Commission.

Of the 12 projects, five were related to energy, according to Meng, who pointed to one project on the east route of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline as an example.

The pipeline project, which commenced in 2014, will diversify China’s natural gas imports and ensure a steady natural gas supply domestically, she said. Under a 30-year contract, the east route pipeline will export 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to China annually from 2018.

China’s investment in fixed assets increased 8.9 percent year on year in the first four months of 2017, down from 9.2 percent in the first quarter, earlier data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.