He was speaking at an exhibition on the achievements of coordinated support for the Three Gorges Reservoir area on Sunday.

Zeng stressed the roles of the market and enterprises in construction of the reservoir area, urging the government to improve the investment environment of the area to attract enterprises that have potentials, markets and technologies.

One-to-one support for the Three Gorges Reservoir area was started in 1992, a year ahead of the construction of the Three Gorges Project, the world's largest hydropower project.

Since then, more than 60 central government departments as well as enterprises, 20 provinces and municipalities and 10 major cities across the country had aided the area with more than 27 billion yuan (3.375 billion U.S. dollars) and cooperated with the area on over 2,100 projects.

Zeng said the one-to-one support has transformed from government-guided poverty alleviation to market-oriented assistance for the self-development of the area and long-term interests of the Three Gorges migrants.

More than 1 million people, who mostly lived in 20 counties of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and central China's Hubei Province, have been moved to pave way for the Three Gorges Project, as rising water of the reservoir submerged the area.

The water level in the reservoir reached the 156-meter mark on Oct. 27 and will eventually reach 175 meters in 2009, when the Three Gorges project is finally completed.

The Three Gorges Project, including a 2,309-meter-long and 185-meter-high dam and 26 generators, is built in three phases on the middle reaches of the Yangtze. Its construction will cost at least 180 billion yuan.

Construction of the gigantic concrete structure of the Three Gorges Dam was completed in May. The dam is now fully functional in terms of flood-control, power generation and navigation.