Eight parties including Beijing Railway Board, Tangshan Port Investment Co., Ltd, and Guangdong Pearl River Investment Co., Ltd., signed on April 6 an agreement to jointly build Qian'an-Caofeidian Railway, a bid to explore a new way of accelerating railway development by means of market mechanism.

Diversified funding was adopted in the project, according to China's Ministry of Railway. In the totally 1.89339 billion yuan of investment, the investment by Beijing Railway Board accounts for 17.91 percent, that by Tangshan Port Investment Co., Ltd. takes up 16.86 percent, Guangdong Pearl River Investmetn Co., Ltd. 14.26 percent, that by Tangshan Caofeidian Industrial Development Co., Ltd. 13.21 percent, that by Tangshan Thermo Power Co., Ltd 12.68 percent, Hebei Construction Investment Company 10.56 percent, Shanghai Electronic Industrial Company 9.24 percent and China Resources Power Holding Co., Ltd. (in Caofeidian of Tangshan) 5.28 percent.

Sources with the Ministry of Railway said, the State Council adopted in January 2004a mid-and long-term plan on railway network, which outlines the blueprint of China's railway in the next 20 years.

Qian'an-Caofeidian project is an important achievement made by the ministry and north China's Hebei Province through collaboration as well as an important program for railway department to seek social capital for railway construction.

The successful cooperation bears much significance for the building diversified investment subject, expanding fund-raising channels and forming an investment system featuring various means of funding.

Now the railway ministry is actively exploring various channels, luring capitals from various parties and studying the policies in a bid to accumulate more capital for railway construction. The broad prospects of China's railway will surely provide opportunities for investors for their further development.

Qian'an-Caofeidian railway, connected with Datong (in north China's Shanxi Province)-Qinhuangdao (in north China's Hebei Province) railway at north Qian'an, extends to Caofeidian port and Jingtang port. It is in Hebei Province and is an important project in north-south coal transportaion. The appraisal of the project has been completed and the construction is supposed to start at the first half of 2005. With a total length of 200 kilometers and an investment of 4.1 billion yuan, it will become an important channel for the coal transportation along Dalian-Qinhuangdao railway line.

Caofeidian port and Beijing-Tangshan port will be able to handle 130 million tons of coal in the long term.

At present most of the coal produced by north China's Shanxi Province is transported from Datong to Qinghuangdao and then shipped to south China. Sometimes, however, coal has been overstocked in Qinhuangdao.

After the Qian'an-Caofeidian Railway is completed, part of the coal carried by Daqin can be diverted to Caofeidian and Jingtang port near Caofeidian.

By People's Daily Online