China has sought private investment in its tightly controlled loss making railway sector, as it presses ahead with its costly high speed rail projects at home and abroad.
On an inspection tour of the China Railway Corporation (CRC), Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said he wants to see more private investment in railways as its development will stabilise economic growth, enhance social harmony and help urbanisation, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Asking CRC to seek new innovative sources of investment, Li said, "Railways paid for solely by the government and managed by administrative order must become a thing of the past."
China has spent vast sums on railways in recent years and changing the way they are financed is very high on the government's agenda.
Earlier in April, the Chinese cabinet had brought an action plan on railway financing, deciding to set up a fund open to private investment.
The fund value is expected to reach 300 billion yuan (USD 48.6 billion).
In addition, 150 billion yuan of railway bonds will also be issued this year, with overtures being made to banks to encourage them to fund railway projects.
Later, the CRC had raised the bar on railway investment for 2014 to 800 billion yuan, hoping to bring over 6,600 km of new trackline.
Announcing that Central and Western regions will be government's top priority, Li said, "People in these areas are eagerly looking forward to new railways, which will narrow the gap between the west and the east and bring them into the centre of our nation's modernisation process."
Official reports last year had said Chinese railway owe USD 43 billion debts to various banks.
Railways are fundamental to China's development and their purpose cannot be achieved in any other feasible way, Li said.
"We should turn the great potential of railways into real productivity and make the sector a new engine of change," he said.
China has already completed 11,028 km of high speed train network that include engineering marvel of construction of rail lines on the permafrost in Tibet.
China's ambitious high-speed rail projects include construction of Trans-Asian Railway Network connecting China with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and 1,776 km of railway being built from Lanzhou in the western province of Gansu to Xinjiang.
China is also reportedly planning to build an ambitious 13,000 km rail line to operate bullet trains to America through Russia passing through a tunnel underneath the Pacific Ocean to reach the continental US via Alaska and Canada.
In May, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has offered to construct a host of high speed railway lines in Africa and India is also seeking investments from China to modernise its ailing railway sector.
