The World Bank announced Wednesday its decision to provide 180 million US dollars in loans to help southwest China improve infrastructure in emerging small cities and towns.

The project, the bank said, also known as the Chongqing Small Cities Infrastructure Improvement Project, will support emerging small cities and towns in Chongqing Municipality, the biggest city in southwest China, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their infrastructure service delivery.

Located in western China, Chongqing is experiencing rapid economic growth and urbanization, spurred in part by the favorable policies of the Central Government's ambitious program to develop its vast west areas, the bank said in a statement issued Wednesday.

However, the bank said, the Municipality's overall development status lags well behind more prosperous regions in many respects.

A relative lack of basic infrastructure especially outside of the main urban areas is a significant development bottleneck, discouraging private investment, contributing to poor environmental conditions, and limiting opportunities to promote growth, according to the bank.

Infrastructure deficiencies generally found in the smaller cities and towns are: poor quality and intermittent supplies of drinking water due to inadequate water resources and mountainous topography, which hinder the development of reliable urban water supply systems; inadequate transportation networks, and structurally incomplete road connections between urban centers and new expressways; low resistance to flooding and other natural disasters, as many cities are built along rivers, on steep valleys or adjacent to flood plains, resulting in insufficient land for

urban expansion; and unsatisfactory sanitation conditions and insufficient drainage and wastewater treatment.

The 180 million US dollar loan will be used to help the Chongqing Municipal Government to address those infrastructure deficiencies.

The bank said the project is built on the successful cooperation between the World Bank and Chongqing Municipality in the past years. Previous Bank-supported projects include the Chongqing Urban Environment Project (CUEP) which is contributing to reducing serious wastewater and solid waste management problems in the Municipality.

Tom Zearley, World Bank Task Manager for the project, said "The World Bank is pleased to be a partner with Chongqing Municipality in accelerating economic development and improving living conditions for less-well-off residents in the lagging regions of the municipality".

"This project has several innovative features including the adoption of a regional water supply approach to address the needs of a number of small towns in water-scarce areas. It is expected to serve as a model for small town infrastructure development in other parts of the country as well."

The project has also benefited from support by the French government, which financed experts to help prepare the project.

Source: Xinhua