Chinanews, Urumqi, March 26 - Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is planning to invest some 2.3 billion yuan in the next five years to build a series of international expressways (totaling about 800 km long), linking Xinjiang with its 8 neighboring countries. Current highways between Xinjiang and Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan will be refurbished, too.

 

The new expressways and current ones will form a transportation network with Urumqi as its center and open land ports as its terminals when completed, which will be a direct boost to the opening-up of Xinjiang and even the west part of China as a whole.

 

There are 17 national-level land ports along the border of Xinjiang, ranking it the top in this aspect in China. Currently there are more than 1,500 vehicles of 37 enterprises there running on the international expressways in Xinjiang.

 

International trade in Xinjiang has been booming in the past few years, and Xinjiang is ready to push it even further. The building of new expressways will be the first and perhaps the most important step.