A senior with the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission announced on Friday that the city would continue to spend more in the development of its suburban areas in the new year.

The relative lack of investment in suburban areas will be addressed, said Wu Guiying, deputy head of the commission, without giving details.

According to the official, the investment ratio between urban and suburban areas was adjusted from 4:1 last year to 3:2 this year. The city's actual investment in the suburbs totaled 5.87 billion yuan (about 707 million US dollars) this year.

Of the total investment in the suburbs, 65 percent went for infrastructure, and 15 percent for social causes and industrial development, and the remainder for construction of facilities for protecting ecology and the environment.

Wu vowed to make greater efforts in advancing urbanization in the suburbs and helping farmers increase income in the new year.

The suburban areas of the city made 69.18 billion yuan (8.34 billion US dollars) in gross domestic product (GDP) from January to September this year, with growth rate outpacing the municipal average.

The per capita net income of the city's rural areas went up by 8.9 percent to hit 7,430 yuan (some 895.2 US dollars) in the first 11 months of the year.