Investment in infrastructure pays off for Guizhou

Better transport system has made the mountainous Guizhou province a gateway in Southwest China, boosting tourism and investment in one of the country’s most impoverished regions, the top official of the province said on Friday.

Sun Zhigang, Party secretary of Guizhou, said more than 90 percent of the province’s landmass are covered by mountains and hills, and its poor connections with outside had long obstructed the regional development.

But the decades-long effort to bolster infrastructure in the province has reversed the situation and made it a crucial transportation hub in the southwestern region and new passageway connecting land and sea, he said.

“The progress has contributed greatly to Guizhou’s economic growth, and lifted its strategic status in the regional economic cooperation,” he said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing.