China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) has started the construction of a housing project valued at US$3.535 billion in Angola, a senior official from CITIC told Xinhua on Monday.

Chang Zhenming, general manger of CITIC, said the housing project, the largest of its kind China has ever contracted abroad, will turn a backward rural area into a modern satellite town of Angola's capital Luanda with a population of over 200,000.

He stressed that the groundbreaking ceremony of the project on Sunday in Kilamba Kiaxi in the suburbs of Luanda signals a new milestone of friendly cooperation between China and Angola.

According to Chang, the project will offer more than 10,000 jobs to local labor market, undoubtedly good news for the Angolan government which faces a headache of 65 percent unemployment.

When the project is completed in 2011, he said, there will be anew town in the rural area comprising 710 apartment buildings withover 20,000 apartments, 246 shops of various kinds, 24 kindergartens, 17 primary and middle schools as well as power transformer stations, water supply stations, sewerage treatment plants and other related infrastructures.

According to Virgilio de Fontes Pereira, minister of Angolan Territory Administration, who attended the ceremony, improving people's life is a priority of the Angolan government.

He said the Angolan government is very much engaged in the fulfillment of social projects and the housing project aimed to improve people's housing conditions.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2008)