Assisted relocation helps villagers improve livelihoods

Job opportunities

Two industrial parks are under construction in the meantime. One park intends to attract high-tech and environment-friendly companies. The other park includes labor-intensive factories that make garments, shoes and chemicals. One shoe manufacturer that has already started production can create 20,000 jobs, Zhou said.

These companies will give priority to hiring villagers who have moved under the relocation project, Zhou said.

Credible agricultural companies will be allowed to rent idled land from villages. For those who choose to stay, they can do the same or work for these large companies, Zhou said.

The Yuping government is trying to raise residents' living standards and help them urbanize through industrialization, Zhou said.

According to Zhou, few ethnic traditions in the Dong autonomous county have the potential to commercialize.

The county is famous for a bamboo flute made of bamboos that grow in the area. Although there is a factory that makes the instrument in Yuping, the skills are passed down within the family and kept secret from outsiders.

Officials overseeing the construction process know they will be held accountable if quality problems are found. They face daily scrutiny from villagers, who are very concerned about their future homes, Zhou said.

Poor construction quality was blamed when a secondary school building collapsed early this month in Kaili, Guizhou province, causing seven injured students to be hospitalized. People questioned why the concrete floor was so fragile and later found the floor contained not a single reinforcing steel bar, according to reports.

Zhou, the official in charge of the villagers' relocation project in Yuping county, Tongren, said he and his colleagues had been informed of the incident and warned to avoid the same thing from happening again under their watch.

Contact the writers at sujiangyuan@chinadaily.com.cn and liyao@chinadaily.com.cn.