Announcement of World Bank Approves United States (U.S.) Ninety-One Million Dollars to Improve China’s Rivers Navigability, Energy Production, and Rural Access to Markets on March 25, 2004

World Bank Approves US$91 Million to Improve China’s Rivers Navigability, Energy Production and Rural Access to Markets Contacts: In Washington Melissa Fossberg (202) 458 4145 mfossberg@worldbank.org In China Li Li 8610-65543361 ext. 2030 Lli2@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, March 25, 2004 – The World Bank today approved a US$91 million loan to improve the export opportunities for producers in poor regions of southern China, by improving the navigability of the region’s major east-west river and other waterways, and by using the water flow to produce energy for the growing demand in Guangdong Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The Fourth Inland Waterways Project, financed in part by this loan, is part of the World Bank’s assistance program to China. “The project is expected to benefit people who use this waterway to transport raw materials and other goods from rural areas to the Pearl River Delta area,” said Graham Smith, who leads the World Bank infrastructure team in China “including people from the poor areas which are often the source of coal, sand and gravel, timber and other building materials being transported on the river. It will also ease congestion on the competing railway routes for people in surrounding areas.” In Guangxi, the project would allow navigation of large vessels on the You River between the cities of Baise and Nanning and generate electricity through the construction of the Naji Dam. In Guangdong, the project would improve navigation conditions on the Bei and Lian Rivers in the hilly northern part of the province, and generate electricity through the construction of the Xiniu Dam. Both regions currently face shortages of electric power. The average income in the Baise prefecture of rural western Guangxi is about $500 a person. In the Lian River valley it is about $400 a person, well below the provincial average in each case. In Guangdong the project will also widen and deepen a waterway crossing the Pearl River Delta which will allow larger ships and barges to ply safely between the rural southwestern part of the province and the industrialized Shenzhen/Zhuhai/Hong Kong area. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) US$91 million variable-spread loan has a 20-year maturity and a 5-year grace period. ###