Investment in Fixed Assets Increased Notably

Since 1981, China has made a total investment of more than 14 trillion yuan in fixed assets. This figure includes 8.1 trillion yuan made by state-owned enterprises, a 12.5-fold increase over the total investment made in the 29 years prior to the launching of reform and opening up to the outside world. Investment in fixed assets in 1997 totaled 2.53 trillion yuan, a 26-fold increase over 1981. The percentage of investment in the state-owned economic sectors of the total investment decreased from approximately 70 percent in 1981 to 53 percent in 1997. The percentage of investment in private enterprises decreased from 18.5 percent to 13.5 percent. The percentage of investment in collective-owned enterprises rose from 12 percent to 15.3 percent. Investments in other fields started from scratch and rose to 458.1 billion yuan in 1997, which was 18.2 percent of the total investment. In terms of investment pattern, the scale of investment in basic industries was enlarged conspicuously. The percentage of investment in the capital construction of energy industry increased from 20.7 percent in 1980 to 26.6 percent in 1997. The percentage of investment in transportation, post and telecommunications rose from 11.2 percent to 21.5 percent while there was a big increase in the percentage of investment in the tertiary industry, which reached 53.8 percent in 1997.

From 1978 to 1997, nearly 100,000 reservoirs of different purposes were constructed with a total water storage of 500 billion cubic meters. 5608 irrigated areas were added and the size of irrigated land came to 22.6 million hectares. New investment in capital construction resulted in an increase of coal-mining capacity by 380 million tons, oil-drilling capacity by 240 million tons, steel-making capacity by 18.84 million tons and power-generating capacity by 159 million kilowatts. At the same time, 1,226,000 kilometers of highway were constructed and the loading capacity of newly constructed (or extended) ports amounted to 460 million tons. From 1980 to 1997, main-track railway newly laid throughout the country increased by 17,000 kilometers.