The government is investing 100 billion yuan (US$12.08 billion) in the relocation of inhabitants of the Three Gorges Hydropower Project and making sure their rights are respected, said a government official in charge of the project Tuesday.

Gan Yuping, deputy director of the State Council Committee for the Construction of the Three Gorges Project, said the government was paying greater attention to the resettlement than to the project itself, he said, "because people are more important".

The project will cost a total of 200 billion yuan (US$24 billion), while half of the investment goes to the relocation of affected people, said Gan.

Gan, known as "the expert on relocation within the Communist Party of China (CPC)", has visited the dam area hundreds of times.

During the process of resettlement, the government respected the will, habits and rights of every migrant, he said. Huge funds have been allocated by the government to relocate ancestral tombs, religious buildings and cultural relics in the reservoir area.

Of more than one million people to be resettled, 110,000 are to be relocated in 11 more developed provinces and municipalities. The migrants themselves would choose their new homes.

To date, more than 700,000 people have been relocated, said Gan. There had been any violence during the relocation program, he said.

The relocation funds were well managed and used, and strict measures had been adopted to prevent corruption, he said.

Official figures show that from 1998 to 2003, only 0.49 percent of the funds were misused in the Chongqing part of the dam area.

The local economy had witnessed rapid development over the past10 years, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2003)