East China's Shandong Province will invest 53 billion yuan (US$6.44 billion) for port construction in the next five years.

To develop Shandong into a major navigation center in northeast Asia, the provincial government will use the money to build 159 berths, increase the annual handling capacity by 400 million tons, according to the government sources.

By 2010, Qingdao Port, Rizhao Port and Yantai Port will stand there as 100 million-dwt ports, and four transport systems will also be set up for large containers, ores, coal and crude oil respectively.

The combined handling capacity of the province's ports will reach 620 million tons annually, and the number of TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent unit)containers handled by local ports will total 13.5 million. Both the figure will double that for last year.

Meanwhile, to achieve the target for 2010, a developed transport network of highways, railways and airways will be established, linking all the ports along Shandong's coast, as well as connecting Shandong with other provinces like Hebei, Inner Mongolia, and Shanxi, which abound in natural resources.