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China designates 32 more cities as resource-scarce

By Wang Xu and Zheng Lifei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-03-05 15:41

China's Cabinet has designated 32 more cities as resource-scarce, adding up the number of cities with this status to a total of 44, the country's top economic planning body announced today.

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The central government will grant financial support to those cities through fiscal transfers, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on its website today.

The NDRC, however, does not disclose the amount of the intended fiscal transfers.

It says it won't designate more such cities in the near future.

The status of resource-scarcity is being attached to cities whose economy used to be dependent on the extraction of raw materials, such as coal and metal, and thus now is facing serious economic difficulties when the supply of those raw materials ran low in recent years.

Huaibei, a coal-mining city in East China's Anhui province and Qitaihe, also a coal-rich city in Northeast China's Helongjiang province are among the 32 newly designated resource-exhausted cities.