BEIJING (AFP)--China is set to spend nearly $440 billion by 2010 on rebuilding the earthquake-hit southwestern province of Sichuan and helping it cope with the global economic crisis, an official said Friday.
Total investment in the province, funded by the government, banks and the private sector, will exceed CNY3 trillion ($438.9 billion) by 2010, said Wei Hong, vice governor of Sichuan.
The cash injection is part of Beijing's plan to expand domestic demand and boost economic growth, Wei told reporters at a briefing in the capital.
About CNY1.7 trillion will be used to rebuild the 139 counties hit by the magnitude 8 earthquake that struck in May, with investment in other development projects to reach about CNY500 billion each year, he said.
The investment will be CNY790 billion for this year and CNY1.2 trillion next year, he added.
The overall spending will be larger than the total investment over the past 12 years in Sichuan, according to earlier Chinese media reports.
The new CNY3 trillion plan is markedly more ambitious than earlier plans to spend CNY1 trillion in the quake zone over the next three years.
The May 12 earthquake was the worst in a generation in China, flattening entire towns and leaving more than 87,000 people dead or missing.
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary:
https://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=%2FyQit1qi1GWz7Y2iwr8Vcw%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.