About 51 percent of quake-affected enterprises, including those already back into operation, would be able to resume production within a month, officials with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Thursday.

"We estimate that another 25 percent would be able to resume production as well in three months," the ministry said.

It said Chinese enterprises had suffered a total loss of more than 200 billion yuan (US$28.99 billion) in the 8.0-magnitude quake that devastated southwest China on May 12.

About 20,476 enterprises in Sichuan Province inflicted losses of 201.1 billion yuan. Industrial and mining enterprises in Shaanxi Province reported 1.63 billion yuan in loss and those in Gansu Province two billion yuan.

The Chinese government is gradually shifting its focus to the daunting task of reconstruction more than two weeks after the quake, although the country is still on high alert due to the danger of swollen quake lakes and pressed by the re-housing of millions of homeless.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, passed a draft regulation on post-quake restoration and reconstruction at an executive meeting here on Wednesday.

The country has also set up a working team to guide reconstruction as early as May 14. It is led by the ministry and another 10 ministries, including the National Development and Reform Commission giving reconciled supports.

Insufficient supply of power coal, oil products and gas due to transport problems, as well as a lack of working funds, were major problems that hindered the resumption of production at quake-hit enterprises, the ministry said.

These quake-ravaged enterprises were also strained in their efforts to help employees settle down after the devastating quake, it said.

The ministry said enterprises that turned out production materials such as electricity, gas, water and coal and those which produced rescue- or reconstruction-related goods were the highest priorities in resumption.

The ministry said it was pressing on with the resumption of production at enterprises that made tents, portable houses, disinfectants, fertilizers, farm chemicals, farming machines, construction materials and food-processing factories.

Large-scale enterprises would be the focus of the ministry's support, but it promised to extend supporting policies for small- and medium-sized enterprises, especially those which teamed up with large enterprises and technology-intensive ones.

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2008)