China has achieved phased progress in implementing major national strategies and building up security capacity in key areas, the country's top economic planner -- the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) -- announced on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, a NDRC spokesperson said that since last year, China has allocated 1.5 trillion yuan (about 21.2 billion U.S. dollars) of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support the construction of over 2,900 "hard investment" projects, while simultaneously advancing the formulation of plans and policies and innovation of institutions and mechanisms.

In terms of new urbanization, efforts have been made to promote the construction and renovation of urban underground pipe networks such as gas and water supply and drainage systems, and step up the improvement of operation and maintenance management mechanisms for pipe networks, according to the spokesperson

In terms of social welfare and people's livelihood, support has been extended for building and expanding 664 high schools in major cities with population inflows, adding over one million new regular high school seats, and also for renovating 15,000 hospital wards.

At the same time, efforts have been made to actively promote the construction of major transportation infrastructure projects such as the Three Gorges Waterway New Channel project and the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu High-Speed Railway project along the Yangtze River, plan and implement the modernization-oriented transformation of super-large irrigation areas each with a size of over 10 million mu (666,667 hectares) in an integrated manner, and accelerate the construction of contiguous grain production bases nationwide, said the spokesperson.