Increased endeavors by the Ministry of Water Resources to promote the development of water conservancy have helped to stabilize the national economy and boost employment during the first seven months of this year, Vice-Minister of Water Resources Liu Weiping said on Wednesday.

 

Between January and July, 567.5 billion yuan ($84 billion) was invested in water conservancy projects, a 71.4 percent increase on last year, Liu told a news conference, adding that the investment "has contributed significantly to stabilizing investment and boosting employment".

 

Over 1.6 million people were employed in the construction of these projects, including over 1.2 million migrant workers from rural China.

 

As of the end of July, there were 31,800 water conservancy projects under construction across the country, with a total planned investment of 1.7 trillion yuan, he said.

 

The vice-minister stressed that the ministry has intensified efforts to promote agricultural irrigation and rural water supply projects, on the basis that investment in these projects not only creates jobs and helps stabilize the economy, but also bolsters national food security and boosts rural development.

 

Altogether 46.6 billion yuan was invested in developing rural water supply projects, more than double the amount invested during the same 7-month period last year, he said, adding that the investments will benefit about 25.3 million rural residents.

 

By the end of July, 17.8 billion yuan had been invested in creating or renovating large and medium-sized irrigation areas across the country.

 

Zhang Xiangwei, head of planning at the ministry, said that although the ministry also had to bolster flood control measures in July, a period prone to major flooding, its efforts to promote water conservancy development had still yielded encouraging results and that 2,110 new water conservancy projects had been launched with a total planned investment of 130 billion yuan.

 

The ministry has worked hard to connect local water resource authorities with water conservancy development enterprises and financial institutions, Zhang said. Local authorities were urged to do all they could to tap the potential of financial instruments to secure loans from banks and support from private capital.

 

The ministry aims to ensure the investment of at least 800 billion yuan in water conservancy development this year. Last year, that figure was 802.8 billion yuan, an increase of 4.2 percent from the previous year.