The government will invest some 5 billion yuan (US$600 million) in the next few years to bolster the orange and animal husbandry industries at Three Gorges area to create jobs for hundreds of thousands of resettled residents.
Qi Lin, deputy director of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee under the State Council, said yesterday that the state-bolstered industries have been jointly planned by the State Development Planning Commission and the ministries of agriculture and technology to improve the lives of residents who were displaced to make way for the construction of the world's largest hydroelectric power project and to develop a sustainable economy in the dam area.
More than 100,000 workers will be laid off from more than 500 technically backward firms that have been ordered to shut down by the end of this year due to serious pollution emissions and outdated production technologies in the dam area of the Three Gorges Hydropower Project, said the project regulatory official.
Meanwhile, 80,000 rural residents will be moving into new resettlement townships this year, which will only add to the unemployment problem in the Three Gorges dam area.
Noting that the area is one of the ideal orange-cultivation areas in the world, Qi said that of the total government appropriation, 3.8 billion yuan would be allocated into developing the orange industry.
It will take eight to 10 years to establish the industry with an annual processing capacity of 5 million tons of oranges.
China's largest private-owned juice producer, the Huiyuan Beverage and Food Co., signed a deal to build a 1-million-ton orange processing line at Three Gorges area, which will become Asia's largest orange processing plant around the year 2010.
China's juice producers rely heavily on the imports of juice extract to produce fruit beverages, especially oranges.
Another 1.1 billion yuan will be used to develop animal husbandry in which 1 million cattle, 4 million sheep, 3.3 million rabbits and 5 million geese will be bred.
With the implementation of the "Grain for Green Project," Qi said, large areas of reclaimed farmland will be returned to pastures, woods and forests in the dam area.
(eastday.com September 18, 2002)
