News Archive
Farmers get lion’s share of reconstruction spend
Released on 01/07/2008
China taps into new-car tax and lottery revenue to prime a reconstruction budget that places a clear priority on Sichuan farmers.
China’s vice-premier Hui Liangyu has said that 40 billion yuan (US$5.7 billion) from the Government’s earthquake reconstruction fund will be dedicated to rebuilding and repairing farmers’ homes.
That is more than half the 70 billion yuan quake reconstruction budget and represents major support for the farming industry in Sichuan province, which was badly affected by the May 12 earthquake.
The details were announced at a meeting of China’s highest legislature, the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), on Thursday, June 26, according to Xinhua.
It was also announced at the meeting that families whose homes had been levelled or severely damaged in rural areas, would be granted 10,000 yuan to rebuild them.
China will spend three years on preliminary reconstruction and further develop the quake-hit region in the following five years, Xinhua said.
When providing the budget breakdown, the Minister of Finance, Xie Xuren, said 60 billion yuan would come out of a 103.2 billion yuan special fund aimed at stabilizing the central budget. In addition, 5 billion yuan would come from vehicle purchase tax revenue, 1 billion yuan from the welfare lottery fund and 4 billion yuan from the state-owned assets operations budget.
Meanwhile, also on Thursday, Premier Wen Jiabao presided over a meeting at the headquarters for quake-relief command of the State Council which clarified the priorities of the reconstruction programme.
The premier called for public facilities such as schools and hospitals to be given priority, according to Xinhua. Reconstruction should also pay great attention to the preservation of traditional and cultural relics, the Premier said.
The headquarters also ordered local governments to respect the will of farmers in the rebuilding of their farms and mobilize more social aid and governmental subsidies to provide them with ongoing help.
The meeting also suggested that those involved in rebuilding the infrastructure should focus on getting their operations up and running as soon as possible, but also pay great respect to local geological conditions.
Many factories, arable land and farmer’s crops were damaged by the devastating May 12 quake that killed nearly 70,000. The headquarters ordered that, in cases where factories had been destroyed, new sites should be built as soon as possible to aid the speedy recovery of local agriculture.
