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UPDATED: August 6, 2012 NO.32 AUGUST 9, 2012
A Decent Housing Example
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Though fast-growing China has created a lot of wonders in the past more than 30 years of reform and opening up, the achievements of its Liaoning Province's ambitious shantytown renovation project still deserve much attention.

The northeastern province began to rebuild state-owned industrial and mining shantytowns on a large scale at the beginning of 2005. By the end of last year, it had renovated 29.1 million square meters of shantytowns. The floor area of newly built apartments totaled 44.02 million square meters, solving housing problems for 2.11 million residents.

Liaoning was one of the earliest industrial powerhouses of China. But even in its prime in the 1950s to 1980s, local state-owned enterprises, especially coal mines in cities such as Fushun, Benxi, Fuxin and Chaoyang, didn't provide enough houses for their workers because more emphasis was placed on production than people's livelihoods.

At the end of 2004, the province had nearly 1.6 million people living in shantytowns without basic living facilities such as tap water, central heating and paved roads. The plight of shantytown residents prompted the government to provide them with better living conditions.

With characteristics of large scale, short time, large population, high proportion of completion, high return rate and satisfaction, the area of renovated shantytowns in Liaoning is almost twice the average number per year required by the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

Along with the renovations, new employment opportunities were also created for unemployed populations previously living in shanties.

A survey among former shantytown residents shows their satisfaction with the improvement in housing conditions, supporting facilities, recreation and mental attitude are very high.

The development of low-income settlements is now a worldwide concern. According to statistics of the UN Human Settlements Programme, people living in slums accounted for a quarter of urban population throughout the world, totaling 827.6 million, and the figure is rising.

The shantytown renovation project in Liaoning, with the lead of the government, also made full use of the market's function in fundraising and many other fields. In this sense, it's a great case study for the international community.



 
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