China to locate poor citizens from remote regions to developed areas

The mass relocation is part of a strategy to lift 10 million people out of poverty by 2020

Migrant workers sit in their sleeping bags with their belongings as they wait for potential employers to arrive at an unofficial labour market located under a bridge in central Beijing October 30, 2008. The global economic slowdown, contrary to some predicitions, is taking its toll on China and threatens to swell its ranks of the unemployed, especially the rural migrant workers who have long streamed into cities to build office towers, clean streets and staff factories. Picture taken October 30, 2008. To match feature CHINA-ECONOMY/UNEMPLOYMENT REUTERS/David Gray (CHINA)

China will invest 946.3 billion yuan ($140 billion) by 2020 to relocate its poorest citizens from remote, inland regions to more developed areas, the state planner said on Monday.

The mass relocation is part of a strategy to lift 10 million people out of poverty by 2020, with 2 million estimated to be moved this year, the state council said in May.

The funds will be used mainly to construct homes, support facilities and basic public infrastructure, with the rest going to the restoration of vacated lands, state planner National Development and Reform Commision (NDRC) said in a document.

The investment will be financed mainly by China's two policy banks — China Development Bank and Agricultural Development Bank of China, who will provide 341.3 billion yuan in long-term loans and 50 billion yuan in construction bonds — as well as by local governments, who will provide 285.8 billion yuan.

Local governments will also raise up to 100 billion yuan through bonds, while the central government in Beijing will allocate around 80 billion yuan. Relocated villagers are expected to contribute 21.5 billion yuan.

China's poor make up about 5 percent of a population of 1.4 billion, living mostly in the countryside and earning less than 2,300 yuan a year, according to the government and state media.

More than 12 million people were moved in earlier relocation efforts as of the end of last year, the NDRC said. ($1 = 6.7699 Chinese yuan)