The Chinese government is facing an uphill battle to relocate more than 7 million destitute rural residents from inhospitable terrain as part of its effort to eliminate poverty, reported Wednesday's China Daily.
Researchers on rural issues said the relocation of needy farmers would prove a major challenge for the government.
In the past decade, more than 2.7 million people have moved to new areas under a government resettlement program. Over 90 percentof them describe their new life as "satisfactory", latest statistics show.
Since 1986, China's banks have extended special loans totaling up to 125 billion yuan (15 billion US dollars) to poor farmers.
Most provincial governments have developed relocation plans forneedy farmers, said the paper.
(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2003)
