During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Northeast China's Jilin province has been focusing on the most urgent and prominent traffic problems in its poverty-stricken areas and poor villages.

A safe and convenient transportation network in poor areas has now mostly been established, providing important mobility and access guarantees for rural areas, especially poor areas, to help people emerge from poverty and become prosperous.

From the start of 2016 to the end of 2019, the province invested 3.55 billion yuan ($542.73) to build general national and provincial trunk roads, including 22 poverty alleviation projects involving 625 kilometers of road and another 15 projects involving 470 kilometers of roads.

In 2020, 485 million yuan was invested to build six projects involving the construction of 155 km of road and the groundbreaking took place of the Yanji-Antu road project.

The upgrading of national and provincial trunk roads has been further strengthened. The proportion of national and provincial trunk roads above class II has reached 76 percent in poverty-stricken areas and all counties have now been covered with class II and above level highways.

During the five-year period, a total of 7.42 billion yuan was invested in the construction of rural roads in poverty-stricken areas. A total of 8,228.8 km of rural roads have been rebuilt, safety projects have been completed and 194 dangerous bridges have been reconstructed.

It is estimated that by the end of 2020, the level of hardened roads in all villages of the province will reach over 97.1 percent.

Jilin raised the provincial investment subsidy standards for road construction and old road reconstruction projects in poor areas, providing guarantees for the fulfillment of the Five-Year Plan's objectives.

To date, Jilin has completed the task of constructing 14,162 kilometers of rural roads and realized its goal of all villages and towns in the province having access to hardened roads.