China’s Sichuan Province has about a quarter of the money it needs to rebuild after a devastating earthquake in May left 90,000 people dead or missing and destroyed much of its infrastructure, a state-controlled newspaper said yesterday.
The China Daily, citing provincial Vice Governor Huang Xiaoxiang (黃小祥), said the southwestern province had only a quarter of the estimated 1.67 trillion yuan (US$244 billion) needed for rebuilding — a shortfall of about US$180 billion. The report did not say where the shortfall was.
The government has so far spent 67.47 billion yuan on relief and reconstruction, most of it from the central government’s budget, according to figures posted on the central government’s Web site.
Only 27 billion yuan of 59 billion yuan in domestic and foreign donations have so far reached quake-hit areas, the government Web site said, citing the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Some 4.5 million homes, 51,000km of highways and 5,500km of railways must be rebuilt to return the province to how it was before the May 12 quake, the newspaper said.
Other reconstruction plans include rebuilding nearly 12,000 schools and 4,000 office buildings, it said. Thousands of children died when their shoddily built schools collapsed in the earthquake.
The rebuilding project will use 37 million tonnes of steel and 370 million tonnes of cement, the report said.
Huang made the comments on Monday at an international trade and investment fair in the coastal city of Xiamen, where he was presenting investment opportunities in Sichuan. He met with delegates from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the US, the provincial government said on its Web site.
“Right now the quake-hit area is back on track and the economy is stable and developing relatively quickly,” he was quoted as saying.
Still, the province needs to create jobs for about 1 million people, according to state media. The quake also threw about 1.4 million farmers into poverty.
Sichuan officials have said they want to rebuild communities within three years.
A woman from the propaganda department of the Sichuan provincial communist party said she did not know about the reported shortfall in funds to rebuild the quake zone. She referred the query to the party’s news office, where the phone was not answered.
The relief fund is financed by the central government, provincial governments and domestic and overseas donations.
During a visit to the quake zone last week to mark 110 days since the disaster, Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said rebuilding homes and infrastructure shattered by the temblor was the country’s most urgent disaster relief task, Xinhua news agency reported.
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