The construction of Guangzhou's subway system would not slow down despite the central government's call to curb fixed asset investment, a city official said yesterday.
Gan Xin , director of the Guangzhou Development and Reform Office, said the city would stick to its schedule to complete 200km of subway lines by 2010.
Mr Gan's remarks, quoted in the Yangcheng Evening News yesterday, were in response to calls by Municipal People's Congress deputies for the government to consider slowing down the project.
Noting that the project had so far run up debts of more than 7.6 billion yuan, a member of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Liao Shufang, said the project had become far more expensive than the municipal government could afford.
Mr Liao, a long-time critic of subways, said few operators around the world were making money. Some of those that were profitable, such as Hong Kong's MTR, made their money chiefly from property development.
The 7.6 billion yuan debt has been incurred in the first three phases of the subway project.