Inland shipping is likely to play a more important role in China's cargo transportation, Li Shenglin, minister of communications, said yesterday.

Rail and road transport carry the bulk of the cargo across the country, but major inland waterways will be developed in next 15 years to share a larger percentage of the freight.

"The Chinese government welcomes foreign capital and social funds to invest in inland waterway projects," he said at an international inland shipping forum on the Yangtze River.

Insiders said that at present inland shipping relies heavily on natural waterways, which restrict cargo transportation's development.

But the ministry plans to overcome the problem by dredging the waterways and building major shipping channels in the next five to 15 years, the minister said.

Priority will be given to the Yangtze River, Pearl River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The length of high-grade channels, which can allow 1,000-ton vessels to navigate, is expected to increase by a big margin.

Inland ports, including those in Chongqing Municipality, Wuhan in Hubei Province, Changsha in Hunan Province and Nanchang in Jiangxi Province, will be developed. And berths for handling containers, ore, coal, petroleum and food will be built at all these ports to meet the demands.

Central and local governments both will invest heavily to improve the inland shipping infrastructure, such as waterway construction, Li said.

Inland shipping has the capability to carry large amounts of cargo at a lower cost and is more energy saving and environmentally friendly than other modes of transport.

Last year, the inland shipping industry attracted 23 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) in investments from multiple sources, a senior official with the ministry told China Daily at the forum.

"But foreign investors haven't got involved in inland shipping business yet. They are more interested in harbors and container transport business, which has a predictable return," he said.

The existing length of inland waterways is 123,000 kilometers, which accounts for 29 percent of the total length of rivers.

The Yangtze, the only river that connects eastern, middle and western China, is the busiest in the country. The 6,300-kilometer-long river accounts for 80 percent of China's inland cargo shipping volume.

The seven provinces and two municipalities along the river agreed last year to further explore the river's shipping potential and develop it into "a golden waterway".

The central government will spend 15 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) on the project from 2006 to 2010, and local governments, too, will pour in huge amounts.

The senior ministry official said 16 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) was spent on the Yangtze River project in 2006. "China wishes to learn from developed countries how to boost sustainable development in and along the Yangtze River," he said. "Countries like the Netherlands have advanced technologies and abundant experience in inland shipping."

More than 200 officials and experts from home and abroad are expected to attend the two-day forum that ends today.