China issues white paper on rural road development

BEIJING -- China's State Council Information Office on Friday released a white paper titled "China's Rural Roads in the New Era" (full text) to introduce the achievements and vision of rural road development in the new era and to share China's experience.

The total length of rural roads reached 4.6 million km by the end of 2023, an increase of 21.7 percent over 2013, enough to circle the equator 115 times, the white paper said.

So far, the country has put in place a rural transport infrastructure network in which county roads connect rural and urban areas, township roads crisscross, and village roads facilitate travel between households and farmland, it said.

According to the white paper, the construction and development of rural roads provides strong support for the comprehensive development of the rural economy and society in China.

Better transport has cleared bottlenecks that had long delayed economic and social development in poor areas, and has laid a solid foundation for rural people to realize moderate prosperity in all respects, it said.

China has shared its development experience and helped construct rural road infrastructure in other developing countries over the years, contributing substantially to poverty reduction, people's wellbeing and sustainable global development, the white paper noted.

Since 2018, China has supported 24 developing countries including Cambodia, Serbia, Rwanda, Namibia, Vanuatu and Niger in highway and bridge construction and maintenance, helping them improve transport infrastructure, according to the white paper.