The Asian Development Bank said Monday it has approved a US$4.5 billion, three-year loan commencing in 2006 to combat poverty in China through infrastructure development, mostly in China's central and western provinces, the AP reported. The program will include projects that support road and railway infrastructure, boost agriculture development, deliver electricity to rural areas, and support water resource management to minimize damage from droughts and floods in poor provinces. The bank said China has two-thirds of Asia's poor and praised China for its progress in reducing the number of rural poor to 26 million in 2004 from 250 million in 1978.
Categories