Some 813,000 residents in the Chongqing Municipality have been relocated for the Three Gorges project, a senior city official said Monday.

The project is the largest water conservancy project in the world and relocation of residents from the flooded area is of vital importance, Vice-Mayor Huang Qifan told reporters from tens of news websites.

Some 180,000 more residents will be relocated before 2008, according to Huang, adding that geological and cultural relics protection of the reservoir area is going on well.

The vice-mayor said that great changes had taken place since the city became a municipality directly under the central government eight years ago.

Chongqing's comprehensive economic strength has greatly increased and remarkable progress has been made in modern industry, agriculture, transportation, telecommunications and commerce, Huang said.

The city did a good job in poverty alleviation, the vice-mayor noted. In 1997, nearly 3.6 million local residents lived in poverty, but by now, 3 million of them have been alleviated from poverty.

The 2005 Asia Pacific Cities Summit will convene in Chongqing from Oct. 11-13, gathering more than 100 mayors from Asia-pacific cities, Huang said, adding that it is a good promotion opportunity for the city.

(China Daily June 14, 2005)