CHINA

Rail Investment to Be Pared by a Third: The government has cut its planned investment in railway construction this year to $3.3 billion, the official China Daily reported. China had originally planned to invest $4.8 billion to ease transport bottlenecks, the newspaper said. No reason was given for the cutback. In January, China moved to curtail investment in new construction projects to curb inflation, but it said infrastructure projects would not be affected. The new construction budget is 28% higher than the 1993 budget for rail improvements, China Daily quoted the Railways Ministry as saying.