BEIJING - China had conducted search and rescue missions for 2,150 watercraft and saved 18,712 people on the water by December this year, Minister of Transport Li Shenglin said Friday.

Li said at a national transport conference on Friday that 298 shipping accidents occurred in 2011, leaving 291 people dead or missing and resulting in 175 shipwrecks, showing year-on-year declines of 10 percent, 11.6 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively.

The year-round success rate of rescue work reached 96.7 percent as a result of improving water safety supervision and rescue ability, said Li.

Li said that the country strengthened financial support for the construction of transport infrastructure despite this year's budget tightenings in macro control and transport construction.

In 2011, roads nationwide were extended by 71,400 kilometers. Of this total, 11,000 km were expressway additions.

Meanwhile, 190,000 km of roads in rural areas were rebuilt.

The country expanded 642 berths, including 99 10,000-ton berths, and improved 1,091 km of inland water channels.

Civil aviation infrastructure also realized fixed investments of 69 billion yuan (about $10.95 billion), with five newly completed airports, Li said.