China approves projects worth $20b in April: Economic planner

BEIJING - The top economic planner said Thursday that it had approved 12 fixed-asset investment projects with total investment reaching 141.6 billion yuan ($20.56 billion) in April.

The projects were mainly in the areas of energy, water conservation and transportation, according to Meng Wei, spokesperson with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Of the 12 projects, five were related to energy, according to Meng, who pointed to one project on the east route of the of China-Russia natural gas pipeline as an example.

The pipeline project, which commenced in 2014, will diversify China's natural gas imports and ensure a steady natural gas supply domestically, said Meng.

Under a 30-year contract, the east route pipeline will export 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to China annually from 2018.

China's investment in fixed assets rose 8.9 percent year on year in the first four months of 2017, down from 9.2 percent in the first quarter, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.