The Chinese government will invest 55 billion yuan (US$6.88
billion) to settle residents relocated by the Three Gorges Project
and support local industries to provide enough job opportunities in
the next five years.
The fund will also be used in infrastructure construction,
environment protection and social development undertakings in the
region, said a senior official of southwest China's Chongqing
Municipality.
Investigation shows the unemployment rate in areas around the
Three Gorges Reservoir was as high as 11.5 percent last year,
despite a drop of 1.3 percentage points from 2005, said Wang
Hongju, mayor of Chongqing,
Over a million residents have bid farewell to their hometowns
and resettle because of the construction of the three gorges
project.
The municipality has joined hands with the China Development
Bank to invest 2 billion yuan to establish a guaranty company which
offers guarantee to private enterprises in the areas, said Wang at
a press conference on Tuesday.
Special funds have been set up by the municipality to support
new private enterprises, including foreign-funded ones, that enter
the areas, while the country has designated coastal economically
developed provinces to help districts of the reservoir area.
"We must make sure that the life of the relocated residents will
get better day by day instead of stagnating at the same level,"
said Wang.
In the reservoir are, out of 1.13 million residents who have
been relocated, 1.02 million have been settled by the end of
2006,said Zhang Baoxin, a senior official with the Office with the
Three Gorges Project Construction Committee of the State
Council.
The Three Gorges Project will benefit the country in flood
prevention, water transport and power generation, but will
challenge the local government in environmental protection as well
as resettlement of relocated residents and industrial development
in the reservoir area, said Wang.
The Three Gorges Project, the world's largest water control
facility, is located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River,
China's longest and one of the most important inland waterways for
shipping in the country.
Launched in 1993 at an estimated cost of 180 billion yuan
(US$22.5 billion), the Three Gorges Project will have 26 generators
able to generate 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually.
(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2007)
