PITTSBURGH: United States President Joe Biden unveiled a $2-trillion infrastructure plan, aimed at modernising America’s crumbling transport network, creating millions of jobs and delivering a 'once-in-a-generation' investment, enabling the United States to best China on the global economic stage. 

Biden said, "It’s a once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we’ve seen or done since we built the inter-State highway system and the space race decades ago."

The first phase of Mr Biden’s 'Build Back Better' programme, which he set out in a speech in Pittsburgh, details massive investment spread over eight years.

Putting infrastructure at the centrepiece of the US president’s economic agenda, it calls for the injection of $620 billion into transport, including upgrading 32,000 km of roads, repairing thousands of bridges and doubling funding for public transport.

Biden said, "Today, I am proposing a plan for the nation that rewards work, not just rewards wealth. It builds a fair economy that gives everybody a chance to succeed. It’s going to create the strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world." 

The cost of the programme would be partly covered by raising Corporate Tax from 21 to 28 per cent. The US president described the blueprint as the "largest American jobs investment since World War II," which would cement the country’s position at the top of the global economy.

The new spending offensive comes soon after the US passed a nearly $2-trillion, COVID-19, economic-stimulus plan. Mr Biden’s speech has fired the starting gun on what is expected to be a bitter battle in the Congress, where the Democrats hold only a narrow majority and will face strong opposition from Republicans.

Biden added, "This infrastructure plan will create millions of jobs, good-paying jobs. It will grow the economy, make us more competitive around the world, promote our national security interests and put us in a position to win the global competition with China in the upcoming years."