BBC Worldwide Monitoring
August 14, 1999

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China news agency).

Guangzhou, 14th August: The world’s largest hydro-electric power project, which is being built at the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River [Chang Jiang], is getting funding from the booming southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

The project has used 230m yuan (27.7m US dollars) in funds channelled through Guangdong Province for the dam, relocation of local people, and for public facilities in the last six years, according to a provincial government official.

Feng Keye, who is in charge of financial aid for the project, in Guangdong, says that the province has had a big responsibility in building energy, telecommunications, and transportation systems in the new communities for the relocated people, in answer to the central government’s call for help.

Private firms in Guangdong have taken over a number of lacklustre businesses near the dam project site through mergers or outright purchases to help them leave an area that will be under water when the dam is completed in early next century.