Fujian to move poor to better dwellings

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2014-06-24

Fujian province in East China will set up 70 relocation areas for a welfare project this year, where every relocatee will get a subsidy of 3000 yuan ($480), the provincial Agricultural Department said on Monday.

The welfare project is to move people living in remote areas to better places, so as to improve their living conditions and provide them with more employment opportunities. Since 1994, the project has benefited around one million people in the province.

The 70 relocation areas for this year are scattered in eight prefecture-level cities. Nanping gets 15, followed by Sanming (14), Ningde (13) and Longyan (12). Zhangzhou has 6, Putian gets 4. Fuzhou and Quanzhou has 3 apiece.

At first, the project focused on rural residents in areas vulnerable to geological disasters and regions in post-disaster reconstruction, while now, people who live in the sources of rivers, nature reserves and biosphere reserves have also been included in the project to prevent those regions from destruction.