Road network the path to progress in promising county

Fu Jinhai, chief of Liujiatang village in Anji county, Zhejiang province, clearly recalls when the village was a remote and poor place a decade ago with one small shop, one motorbike and a single nearby road made of stones and sand.

The villagers, like many others in the county, had to look for jobs outside their hometown because backward transport blocked investors and tourists, although the splendid natural beauty provided potential tourism resources.

But there have been great changes since 2005 when a 9-km road was built to link seven neighboring villages including Liujiatang.

With visitors and investment brought in by the new road, inns, resorts and shopping facilities have emerged.

The village is now one of the richest in the area with a per capita income of nearly 22,000 yuan ($3,5465) last year. The number was around 4,000 yuan for each resident in 2003.

The road is just one example of a county government project to upgrade countryside transportation launched in 2003.

More than 300 km of roads were completed in the first three years of the effort, which covered all villages in the county. Another 800 km was added by the end of 2013 to link the roads into a complete network.

The provincial government provides a 180,000 yuan subsidy for each km of road and the county pays 50,000 yuan per km.The transportation authority has also used a range of financing methods to attract investment so that every year some 100 km of roads have been built in the countryside since 2008.

Thanks to better logistics and accessibility, the average net income for the rural population in Anji reached 17,617 yuan in 2013, an increase of 11.2 percent over the previous year.

Local authorities have also improved road maintenance in suburban areas.

The first countryside road maintenance station in Zhejiang province was built in 2009, marking a shift in focus from building to management.

In 2011, the county became the first in the province with such stations set up in all its townships. In the same year, the first road maintenance instructors were sent to one-on-one instruction to local road workers. The instructor model was then used across the county this year as a long-term approach to countryside road maintenance and management.Another innovation is a road inspector system comprised of township mayors, grassroots government officials and village chiefs responsible for random inspection and providing advice about road maintenance. The names of road inspectors and supervision hotlines are publicized on billboards along the newly built roads, along with basic facts about the roads."People in the countryside benefit the most," said Wang Xiaofeng, director of Anji's road and highway administration, adding that the work of road inspectors is assessed annually.

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/23/2015 page10)