New highway in China's northwest Muslim region to boost development.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Yinchuan, 18 December: A new freeway opened to traffic in northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Sunday [18 December], which is expected to add wings to the economic development of this underdeveloped region.

The 117-km-long freeway, linking the cities of Tongxin and Guyuan in southern mountainous area of Ningxia, is a part of the freeway from Fuzhou, capital of south China's Fujian Province, and Yinchuan, the regional capital.

The whole project is …