Custom essays: The Rebuilding Process in Sichuan Province

According to the official report of Chinese government the affected areas of Sichuan, in general, are restored. On May 12, 2010 at press conference in Sichuan Province there was made public report on the progress of reconstruction work in earthquake-affected areas. According to the document, nowadays 2,585 schools and more than 1200 medical institutions are reconstructed in the region. In addition, the current administration continues to work to improve the living conditions of local populations (Scotton 2010).
Yu Wei, the general secretary of Sichuan administration said: “To date, the construction of residential houses in the villages is completed almost for 100%. When the work will be finished, 1.549 million families will move into new houses. In addition, the construction of houses for 257 thousands of families is in process” (Miller 2009).
Within 2 years after the earthquake in Sichuan Province, local authorities have also taken several measures to combat unemployment in the region, and more than 1.5 million people found new jobs. In addition the size of contributions of companies to the social security fund in Sichuan region was reduced by the total amount of 3 billion 300 million yuan.
A lot of countries and institutions were ready to help China to cope with the consequences of the earthquake. The World Bank and France agreed to provide China with a loan of 900 million dollars for the reconstruction of Sichuan Province (Merkel-Hess 2009).
The funds were transferred in December 2008. They were spent for the reconstruction of roads, bridges, construction of hospitals and rehabilitation centers for children injured by the impact of the earthquake.
In 2008 Spain also was ready to provide a loan of 20 million euros to the relief work in Sichuan. According to the Government of China, they expected to need 147 billion US dollars to rebuild affected regions.
During the first half a year after the earthquake China has spent 360 billion yuan (about 53 billion dollars) to rebuild shattered in May 2008 a powerful earthquake in Sichuan Province, said on Friday the deputy chairman of the State Committee for Reform and Development of China Moo-Hun (Rae 2008).
According to the information from the China’s Committee on the Control and Management of the banking industry, at the end of March 2008, the banking and financial institutions in China contributed 205.539 billion yuan in loans to support the recovery of construction in the earthquake areas. In particular, 168.985 billion yuan of credit was given to Sichuan province, 16.065 billion yuan – Shaanxi province, 20.309 billion yuan – Gansu province (China Earthquake 2008).
Chinese Committee on the Control and Management of the banking industry encouraged banking institutions to provide financial assistance for reconstruction work in disaster areas. Already in July 2008, there were opened 9 new village-level banks in the counties of Dujiangyan, Myanchzhu and Shifa, which supported the reconstruction program and had already accumulated 438 million yuan. With the help of the Committee, 10 domestic banks, including Shanghai Bank, Bohai Bank and Bank of Chongqing opened their branches in quake-hit areas in Sichuan Province in summer 2008.
On November 30, 2009, it was announced that 50.497 billion yuan were invested in the restoration of transport infrastructure projects in the areas of Sichuan. According to data provided by Transport Department of Sichuan region on November 30 2009, 5 projects for the restoration of high-speed freeways were completed, and another 6 projects were under implementation. Also 22 projects on reconstruction of provincial roads were completed. It was told that several projects started in the villages, where roads have been restored with total length of 20.358 kilometers (Scotton 2010).
In one year after the earthquake all newspapers were writing that the transport infrastructure that had been almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in Sichuan province, continued to recover with enviable pace. In May 2009 more than 30 thousand people were involved in the repairing of the roads (Books LLC 2010).
The newspapers wrote that during the earthquake in Sichuan more than 26 speed highways, 21 on intercity highways and 29,000 kilometers of rural roads were destroyed in the province. The total economic loss was estimated as more than 50 billion yuan. Immediately after the earthquake, the provincial government sent more than 30,000 builders and 13,000 units of vehicle into the affected areas. With their help more than three thousand six hundred kilometers of highways and roads in the two hundred and fifty villages have been repaired in time. According to information received by the end of March 2009, nearly 400 projects of restoration the highway had been completed (Scotton 2010).
According to statistics, due to the earthquake the transportation was completely paralyzed in Wenchuan, Beichuan, Tsinchuan, Maosyan and Pinu, and in 2114 counties. 9-speed highways and 16 provincial highways and rural roads, with the total length of 24 thousand km were badly damaged.