Southwest China's Guizhou province, one of the poorest in the nation, has planned to build an express railway between its capital Guiyang and Guangzhou, capital of rich Guangdong province.

Trains will complete the journey from Guiyang to Guangzhou in just 4 hours, boosting trade between Guizhou and the Pearl River Delta, said Lin Shusen, acting governor of Guizhou Province, at a recent Guizhou-Hong Kong trade seminar.

Currently trains need 17 hours to do the journey.

Construction of a new highway between Guiyang and Guangzhou is also on the agenda, according to Lin, making it possible for a Guiyang container truck to reach Guangzhou in 9 hours.

Guizhou is an underdeveloped mountainous province, and its GDP per capita stood at only 4,893 yuan (about 622 US dollars) in 2005, compared to 26,134 yuan (about 3,324 US dollars) in Guangdong Province.

The expressway and railway will have a dynamic effect on business between Guizhou Province and the Pearl River Delta.

The railway project has been put under plan by the State Development and Reform Commission and details are being discussed, officials said.

If everything goes well, construction of the express railway will begin in 2007, according to the provincial government. But details of the project are still unknown.

The project is part of China's efforts to develop its railway network. China will invest 300 billion yuan (about 34 billion US dollars) in railway construction next year, according to the China Railway Financing Forum.

Editor: Donald