(Yicai Global) Sept. 6 -- China has a significantly higher proportion of roads in rural China that are built with cement or asphalt, compared to countries of a similar size such as Australia, Canada and the US, said Yang Guofeng, a sub-inspector at the Ministry of Transport's roads department on Sept. 5.

The hard-surface road ratio in China's rural regions currently stands at 73.2 percent, while it is less than 45 percent in each of the other above-mentioned countries.

Hard-surface road ratio refers to the ratio of cement and asphalt roads to the total number of roads in a given area.

Some 99.99 percent of townships and 99.94 percent of administrative villages in the country are accessible by road. Some 600,000 kilometers of hard-surface roads have been built since the 18th National People's Congress in November 2012, transport ministry data show. The ministry plans to increase the hard-surface road ratio to 100 percent by 2020.

Improvements in accessibility by road and the hard-road ratio are a result of the development of rural road transport networks over time. Enhanced transportation networks have helped to increase employment and the income of people living in rural areas, as well as stimulating the development of local transport, tourism, manufacturing and logistics industries.