China outlines stimulus package spending

Elaine Kurtenbach
AP Business Writer

Shanghai (AP) — A quarter of China’s $586 billion economic stimulus package is going to rebuilding from last year’s devastating earthquake in Sichuan, the government said Thursday in an outline of how the program is being carried out.

The report by the National Development & Reform Commission, China’s main planning agency, was the first detailed outline of how China intends to spend the stimulus money and what it has done so far.

Questions remain, however, over how much of the money is newly allocated and how much predates the package’s launch in late November.

Spending related to rebuilding from the May 12, 2008, earthquake in central China totals 1 $14.6 billion, the report said.

The 7.9 magnitude quake, which left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and another 5 million homeless, caused such devastation across the area centered in Sichuan province that it is unclear if the region will ever fully recover. But the authorities have sought to showcase the reconstruction effort.

The NDRC report showed another $22 billion, or 37.5 percent of the package, going to other construction of roads, railways, airports, irrigation and other basic infrastructure across the country.

Such programs are meant to help stimulate demand, improve China’s overall productivity and to help provide jobs for the tens of millions of workers who were laid off from industries hammered by a downturn in demand due to the global economic crisis.

But the report gave no details on exactly how much money has been spent so far or how many jobs may have been created by the accelerated public works programs.