NEED THE BREAD: A woman from Sichuan Province makes stuffed bread buns for earthquake victims. She was trained by a company from Hubei Province that has been helping with relief work

Sichuan was the worst-hit area of China, so reconstruction work there will have a direct influence on how plans proceed in other areas. On July 18, Beijing Review reporter Feng Jianhua interviewed Wang Guangsi, Vice Director of the Sichuan Development and Reform Commission, about Sichuan's reconstruction plan.

Beijing Review: The State Council required that the general plan for reconstruction and nine specific plans should come out within three months after the earthquake. How is the work going now?

Wang Guangsi: The reconstruction plans, including an overall plan and nine specific plans, of different quake-hit provinces and cities, should be formulated firstly by the provincial and municipal development and reform commission, and be forwarded to the Post-earthquake Reconstruction Planning Group of the State Council, which will make a national reconstruction plan.

On May 19, Sichuan Provincial Government organized the Post-earthquake Reconstruction Planning Group, which was led by the Sichuan Development and Reform Commission. There are more than 300 people in this group, including officials from Sichuan Provincial Government, people from the six areas in Sichuan that were hit worst by the earthquake, and experts from national research institutes. After 53 days of hard work, the group developed a reconstruction plan of Sichuan.Now we are leading the six areas that were hit worst by the earthquake to make detailed plans according to the different conditions in each place. In a whole, there is no problem to finish the entire reconstruction plan within three months.

What is the target for the reconstruction plan of Sichuan Province?

When we made the reconstruction plan, we adhered to the following principles, or targets. Firstly, we wanted to create a safe living environment for the local people; secondly, repair the infrastructure, public service institutions and trade system; thirdly, help local people develop their own industries; fourthly, establish a complete social security system to ensure social stability during reconstruction; and finally, provide more opportunities for rural people who wanted to go to large cities for work.

Some experts said the principle on the after-quake work should be "saving time for rescuing people while taking time for reconstruction." What difficulties did you meet in developing a plan within such a short time?

We encountered many difficulties in making the reconstruction plan since we had to finish it within a very short time. We had to make clear four