Northeast China's Liaoning Province is to invest 64.3 billion yuan (80.3 billion U.S. dollars) to improve its port infrastructure in the 11th Five Year Plan period (2006-2010).

Pei Song, an official of Liaoning provincial transportation bureau, said the investment will be used to build 147 new berths in its ports with a total throughput of 320 million tons.

Meanwhile, the new berths will allow the province to have capacity of handling 11.14 million standard containers, Pei said.

By 2010, the number of total berths in Liaoning's ports will increase to 470 with 500 million tons of throughput and an ability to handle 13.66 million TEUs.

During the 10th Five Year Plan period (2001-2005), Liaoning reported 1.06 billion tons of port throughput and handled 11.2 million TEUs, 19.4 and 26.6 percent up respectively yearly.

In 2005 alone, the province spent 10.1 billion yuan (1.26 billion dollars) on infrastructure construction. During the period, Liaoning saw a throughput of 300 million tons and handled 3.78 million TEUs, up 20 and 26.4 percent year-on-year respectively.

Source: Xinhua