Beijing, September 30 (KCNA) -- New China was founded on October 1, 1949. Since then the Chinese people eradicated centuries' old backwardness by weathering all the difficulties and ordeals in a short span of time, under the guidance of the Communist Party of China, and are now dynamically pushing ahead with the building of a modern socialist state.

The Chinese people have laid strong foundations for key industrial fields including metallurgy, machine-building, automobile, oil, coal, power and chemical industries.

They achieved a lot of successes through their endeavors for the modernization of the country during the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan, in particular.

The production of cement increased 1.8 times, electricity 1.7 times, coal 1.4 times and chemical fertilizers 1.3 times last year as compared with that in 2005.

China ameliorated cultivated land with low yields and reinforced about 9,400 reservoirs to save them from danger. The foundation of agriculture has grown stronger and the grain production showed 2.5 percent annual increase on an average.

Railway networks find their ways to almost all the areas of China including minority regions. Motorways have been built in villages, towns and administrative units and a total length of highways reached 74,000 kilometers.

China built many ports and adjusted sea lanes for the development of marine transport. As a result, yearly cargo handling capacity at the ports rose to 6.91 billion tons.

Modern science and technology including bioengineering, delivery rocket and satellite communication has reached a high level.

In the last five years China put into orbit several satellites and successfully launched manned spaceship "Shenzhou-7".

Almost all Chinese people have acquired general knowledge thanks to the progress made in the enforcement of 9-year compulsory education system and the development of the system whereby people study while on the job.

There are more than 2,300 universities and colleges in China.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Macao enjoy prosperity and stability after the handover to China.