China's economic developmentsince the opening of its economy in the late 1970s hasresulted in an eight percent average annual rate of economicgrowth. Key facets of this growth are rapidly increasingdomestic and foreign trade as well as increasing personalmobility and consumption of energy. The deficiencies of theChinese road and highway system have in particular created abottleneck in China's economic development. The majorobjective of the China country assistance strategy (sincethe 1980s) was to alleviate infrastructure bottlenecks, inproviding financial resources and promoting sector reformsin China. In 1997-98, the World Bank worked together withthe Chinese government in completing a review of thetransport sector and preparing an intermodal transportstrategy. The strategy provides proposals for increasingcompetition and efficiency, identifies the changing patternsof demand for transport, and advances the analysis ofinvestment needs of the sector and their financing.