Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Tuesday outlined an eight-year plan for reconstruction and development for areas devastated by the May 12 earthquake.

Delivering a report to the country's top legislature, Hui said, "Our priorities are resettling the affected people, repairing infrastructure and preventing disease outbreaks and earthquake-related disasters."

"The earthquake caused huge losses, and reconstruction is a pressing and long-term task," said Hui, also the deputy head of the State Council's earthquake relief headquarters, at the opening of the third session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC).

The focus of the operation had shifted from rescue to relief and reconstruction.

"We plan to spend three years to complete preliminary reconstruction and further develop the quake-hit regions in the following five years."

To fund relief and reconstruction, the State Council, China's Cabinet, tabled a plan on adjustment of the central budget to establish a reconstruction fund at Tuesday's NPC session.

Hui said 40 billion yuan from the reconstruction fund would be dedicated to subsidize the rebuilding and repair of farmers' homes.

Minister of Finance Xie Xuren said the central government would allocate 70 billion yuan (10.14 billion U.S. dollars) this year to establish a reconstruction fund for the quake-hit region, which will be included in this year's budget.

Sixty billion yuan would come from a 103.2 billion yuan special fund aimed at stabilizing the central budget, 5 billion from vehicle purchase tax revenue, 1 billion from the welfare lottery fund and 4 billion from the state-owned assets operations budget. To date, 54.31 billion yuan from both the central and local governments had been allocated to relief and reconstruction.

Xie said the government would strengthen its administration and supervision of the fund, and prevent embezzlement from it.

"Reports on fund use will be made to the NPC and its standing committee."

The fund will be used in at least four aspects, including subsidies for the reconstruction of demolished families; expenditures for the reconstruction of schools, hospitals and government offices; expenditures for the reconstruction of infrastructure, such as electricity, transport, water supply, gas supply systems and reservoirs, and expenditures for industry and commerce restoration, as well as resident displacement and geological disaster prevention and control.

Since the Wenchuan quake, the NPC Standing Committee has paid close attention to the after-quake reconstruction. Its chairman and vice-chairpersons meeting was held to hear the State Council's report on quake relief work in late May.

A report submitted by the NPC Financial and Economic Committee said the launch of the quake reconstruction fund was very necessary, as it was conducive to concentrating money for reconstruction. It attaches great importance to restoring normal economic and social order and maintaining social stability in quake-hit areas.

After the earthquake, more than 7.78 million homes collapsed and 24.5 million were damaged, the latest figures showed.

As of Monday noon, the earthquake had claimed 69,181 lives and left 374,171 injured and 18,498 missing.

"The quake in Sichuan was the most destructive one ever occurred in China, which affects almost all parts of the country and presents the greatest difficulty in the disaster rescue and relief," Hui said after summarizing the rescue and relief operation at the meeting chaired by Wu Bangguo, the NPC Standing Committee chairman.

Since the earthquake centered at Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, 84,017 survivors had been rescued from the debris, more than 2.04 million injured hospitalized and 15.1 million people relocated to safe areas.

Last month, the Cabinet ordered central government departments to cut budgets by 5 percent this year to help the disaster relief. The government also called on the public to live more frugally and vowed to freeze the approval of any new office buildings for government bodies.

The government also promised further funding would be allocated for the reconstruction of quake-hit areas in the following years.

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2008)