After the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) approved the Ministry of Railways’ investment plan of 2 trillion Chinese yuan in 2008, the Ministry of Transport is examining a plan to invest 5 trillion yuan over the next 3-5 years. In the ten measures issued by the Council to stimulate domestic demands, an investment of 4 trillion yuan was confirmed, most of it concentrated in infrastructure development. In the construction of projects for railways, roads, harbors and water conservancy projects, among others, geosynthetics will be in heavy use.
Mr. Zhu Minru, Chairman of the China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA), anticipates that heavy investment by the state government in railways and road construction will involve major development and utilization of geotextiles to solve application problems: nonwoven geosynthetics, geonets, geogrids, geomats, geocells and drainage boards, among others. Applications in filtration, anti-seepage, water drainage, separation and soil reinforcement are all key growth areas for the use of geosynthetics in China’s infrastructure.