Since 1998, the Chinese government has used more than 48 billion yuan (about 6 billion US dollars) raised from issuing treasury bonds in the sectors of education, public health, culture and tourism, the Economic Daily quoted sources with the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) as saying on Thursday.

About half of the funding went to the education sector, according to a report of the Beijing-based Economic Daily, a leading economic newspaper in China.

The newspaper gave a breakdown of the funds raised by issuing T-bonds:

Since 1999, some 8.5 billion yuan has been used to enhance college education. and 11 billion yuan has been used to support education in western areas.

Since 2001 a total of 12 billion yuan has been used to support the nine-year compulsory education in rural areas.

In 2002 and 2003 a total of 2.92 billion yuan was used in the construction of disease prevention systems in central and western areas, and after 2003, when the SARS epidemic broke out in the country, another 5.7 billion yuan was put in this regard.

Since 2000 a total of 6.72 billion yuan has been used to improve the tourism infrastructure in various scenic spots, the newspaper said.

Source: Xinhua