China to invest $5 billion in subsidies to renovate rural houses

BEIJING: China will provide $5 billion in subsidies to the poor masses living in rural households for renovation of their dilapidated homes this year.

Subsidies allocated by the central government will reach 31.87 billion yuan ($ 5.04 billion) this year and the pilot scheme will cover 4 million poor rural homes, according to a joint statement today by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission.

All counties in central and western regions, as well as those counties in eastern and coastal provinces of Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong and Guangdong will be covered by the scheme, the statement was quoted by the China Daily as saying.

Each impoverished rural household will be given a subsidy of 7,500 yuan on average, while 130,000 poverty-stricken rural households located in the border areas will be granted another 2,500 yuan in subsidies each, the statement said.

Another 130,080 rural households that are selected as examples for building energy-efficient renovation projects can obtain another 2,500 yuan in subsidies each, it said.