Statistics showed that 80 percent of the relocation of residents from the Three Gorges Reservoir area on the Yangtze River and investment in the world's largest water project has been completed.

According to the statistics, compiled by the Committee for the Construction of the Three Gorge Project under the State Council, a total of 820,000 people have been relocated with over 27 million square meters of housing set up for them.

Meanwhile, two cities, 11 county seats and thousands of townships, along with 1,100 industrial and mining enterprises, have been moved from the reservoir areas, said Lu Chun, an official from the committee, early recently.

The official said that more than 50 billion yuan (US$6 billion), including 37.5 billion yuan from the central government and 15.8 billion yuan raised from other channels, has been injected into the project.

Most of the 130,000 laid-off workers from the bankrupt and closed companies in the reservoir area have been reemployed, Lu said.

Because of the construction of the Three Gorges Project, 1.13 million residents need to be relocated to other areas, of whom, 1.03 million are from Chongqing, the most important industrial city on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, China's longest river.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2004)