Photo taken on Nov. 6, 2019 shows an under-construction highway linking Leye County and Baise City in Baise of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

China's total FAI in highways and waterways reached 2.16 trillion yuan (about 294 billion U.S. dollars) during the January-November period, a year-on-year growth of 2.9 percent.

BEIJING, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's fixed-asset investment (FAI) in highways and waterways registered steady growth in the first 11 months of the year, official data showed.

Total FAI in highways and waterways reached 2.16 trillion yuan (about 294 billion U.S. dollars) during the January-November period, a year-on-year growth of 2.9 percent, according to statistics from the Ministry of Transport.

Photo taken on Sept. 18, 2019 shows a Yellow River highway-railway bridge on the Haoji Railway. (Photo by Tang Zhenjiang/Xinhua)

Specifically, investment in inland rivers expanded 7.5 percent to reach 54.75 billion yuan, while that of highway construction recorded a growth rate of 1.9 percent to 2.02 trillion yuan during the period.

The FAI growth rate registered in central regions hit 6.7 percent year on year for the first 11 months, which was much higher than that of western and eastern China. ■