The Ministry of Civil Affairs has signed contracts with seventy-five companies to produce 900,000 tents for the quake-hit areas. The task is now expected to finish by June 20th, ten days earlier than scheduled.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has signed contracts with seventy-five companies to produce 900,000 tents for the quake-hit areas.

Among the seventy-five companies, forty-eight have passed initial quality control checks, and soon will produce tents in volume. Eight companies have produced 3,000 tents which are already on the way to the quake areas. Starting from Friday, 30,000 tents will be sent to the quake areas each day by road and train.

The quality of the tents has been checked by the nation's supervising center for the inspection of military products. In addition, civil affairs agencies in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Beijing have donated over 4,000 tons of canvas cloth for building makeshift shelters in the disaster zone.

(CCTV May 27, 2008)