The central Chinese government and nine regional governments will pump more investments into expanding shipping services on the Yangtze River, the country's longest waterway.

The funds will be used for six major tasks including dredging shipping routes in the mainstream of the Yangtze, port construction and standardizing ships, said Jin Yihua, director of the Administration for Yangtze River Shipping Affairs, an affiliate of the Chinese Ministry of Communications.

Addressing a recent meeting in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, Jin said the Ministry of Communications, seven provinces and two cities along the Yangtze -- Anhui and Shanghai -- last November inked an overall plan regarding the expansion of the Yangtze River's role as the country's No.1 waterway during the 11th Five-Year-Plan period (2006-2010).

In addition to policies, the central government will invest 15 billion yuan (about 1.88 billion U.S. dollars) in hard funding, said Jin.

Officials and experts hope to improve shipping conditions on the Yangtze and to ship ever more cargo up the mighty river -- by 2010 as much as 1.3 billion tons of cargo could be moved on the waterway.

The consequences for marine life and water quality were not dealt with at the meeting.

Currently, 80 percent of China's inland river shipping services are carried out on the Yangtze and its tributaries. Large enterprises in the area rely on shipping for most of their raw materials and for energy resources such as crude oil and coal.

The seven provinces and two cities along the Yangtze contribute 41 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

Last year, ports on the mainstream of the Yangtze handled 780 million tons of cargo, up 19.4 percent from a year ago.