CHINA will tap foreign investors for more money to fund its huge infrastructure needs in the next five years.
Total investment would hit US$280 billion if China maintained an annual economic growth of 8 to 9 per cent to 2000, the World Bank predicted.
Infrastructure investment would account for 7 to 8 per cent of China's gross domestic product in the next five years, Xinhua (the New China News Agency) quoted World Bank experts as saying.
This would make China the world's largest investment market for infrastructure facilities well into the next century, experts attending a three-day seminar in Nanjing said.
Overhauling the investment mechanism of urban construction was high on the agenda of the seminar, co-sponsored by the State Commission for Restructuring the Economy and the World Bank.
The French Ministry for Public Projects, Transportation and Tourism was another co-sponsor.