China to invest $5b to renovate rural houses

BEIJING - The Chinese government said on Saturday it will subsidize 4 million poor rural households through a pilot scheme to renovate their dilapidated houses in rural areas this year.

Subsidies allocated by the central government will reach 31.87 billion yuan ($5.04 billion) this year, according to a joint statement 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, according to the statement.

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.