China will invest 15 billion yuan to expand shipping services on the Yangtze River, the country's longest waterway.
The funds will be used to construct ports and standardize ships, said Jin Yihua, director of the Administration for Yangtze River Shipping Affairs, an affiliate of the Ministry of Communications.
As much as 1.3 billion tons of cargo could be moved on the waterway by 2010. Ports on the Yangtze River handled 780 million tons of cargo last year, up 19.4 percent from the previous year.
Some 80 percent of China's inland river shipping services are carried over the Yangtze River and its tributaries. 
