Post-quake cities plan stepped up

City dwellers left homeless by the earthquake in Sichuan will all be permanently resettled by the end of this year, 12 months ahead of schedule, the provincial government has said.

After vowing to move all rural survivors to newly built houses by September, the authority has now pledged to step up construction in urban areas as the central government feels accelerating the recovery would help boost domestic consumption and reduce the impact of the global financial crisis, said provincial governor Jiang Jufeng.

"Quicker investment in post-quake recovery has been seen by the central government as an engine to boost national development," a source close to Jiang told China Daily, who said the governor had put that message across to leading governmental and Party officials in quake zones at a recovery discussion last week.