Province in ambitious project to end poverty
Source: Xinhua |
August 21, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE of the country's poorest provinces plans to solve its poverty problem by moving 2 million people out of the mountains and barren terrain by 2020.
The project will be one of the largest government-initiated migrations in China, even surpassing the Three Gorges Dam relocation project that involved 1.27 million people along the Yangtze River.
Guizhou, in southwest China, plans to move the first 100,000 people this year, at a cost of 1.8 billion yuan (US$283 million), said Chen Yiqin, the province's deputy governor. He said the relocation scheme was key to Guizhou's "final offensive against poverty." About 11.5 million people, or a third of Guizhou's rural population, live under the state poverty line.
The province has very few areas suitable for growing food, with mountains and hills taking up 92.5 percent of the land area. The region is also prone to geological and natural disasters such as landslides and floods.
Ye Tao, head of the provincial poverty alleviation office, said the "hardest nut to crack" was to lift people living deep in the mountains and barren regions out of poverty.
Living conditions are harsh and the environment cannot sustain so many lives in many areas, said Xiao Hong, deputy mayor of Tongren City, adding that "relocation is the only option at hand."
Retail stalls offered
Ye said the people will be relocated to towns and industrial districts where there will be housing and job opportunities. Construction of 181 resettlement communities for this year has already begun.
He said the government had drawn up policies to help the relocated settle down.
For this year, each relocated family will be allocated a house no smaller than 80 square meters. The government has also pledged to offer retail stalls to families, officials said.
The funding for the new houses will be shared by the families and the government.
Wu Yutao, a villager in Songtao Miao Autonomous County, said she was excited to leave the family's 50-year-old rural home and move into a town.
China has migrated many people, such as in the Three Gorges project. The largest relocation was begun in Shaanxi Province last year with plans to move nearly 2.8 million people out of either poverty-stricken or disaster-prone areas over the next 10 years.
The project will be one of the largest government-initiated migrations in China, even surpassing the Three Gorges Dam relocation project that involved 1.27 million people along the Yangtze River.
Guizhou, in southwest China, plans to move the first 100,000 people this year, at a cost of 1.8 billion yuan (US$283 million), said Chen Yiqin, the province's deputy governor. He said the relocation scheme was key to Guizhou's "final offensive against poverty." About 11.5 million people, or a third of Guizhou's rural population, live under the state poverty line.
The province has very few areas suitable for growing food, with mountains and hills taking up 92.5 percent of the land area. The region is also prone to geological and natural disasters such as landslides and floods.
Ye Tao, head of the provincial poverty alleviation office, said the "hardest nut to crack" was to lift people living deep in the mountains and barren regions out of poverty.
Living conditions are harsh and the environment cannot sustain so many lives in many areas, said Xiao Hong, deputy mayor of Tongren City, adding that "relocation is the only option at hand."
Retail stalls offered
Ye said the people will be relocated to towns and industrial districts where there will be housing and job opportunities. Construction of 181 resettlement communities for this year has already begun.
He said the government had drawn up policies to help the relocated settle down.
For this year, each relocated family will be allocated a house no smaller than 80 square meters. The government has also pledged to offer retail stalls to families, officials said.
The funding for the new houses will be shared by the families and the government.
Wu Yutao, a villager in Songtao Miao Autonomous County, said she was excited to leave the family's 50-year-old rural home and move into a town.
China has migrated many people, such as in the Three Gorges project. The largest relocation was begun in Shaanxi Province last year with plans to move nearly 2.8 million people out of either poverty-stricken or disaster-prone areas over the next 10 years.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
