National Development and Reform Commission

May 28, 2008

After the occurrence of Wenchuan Earthquake in Sichuan Province, according to the decision and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) initiates emergency plans at the primary time, mobilizes all possible resources, spares no efforts in the rescue-and-relief operations. In reaction to the instructions from the State Council Earthquake Rescue-and-Relief Headquarters, NDRC has been appointed as the lead for the "Taskforce of Infrastructure Support and Post-earthquake Reconstruction", together with other relevant government departments and units, and the first taskforce meeting was held on the evening of May 12. Till today, taskforce meeting has been held everyday, and instructions from CPC Central Committee and State Council has been delivered, and information of major infrastructure's damage, such as transport network, energy supply, telecommunication, irrigation works, urban and rural water supply, has been exchanged, and intraday infrastructure's reconstruction, rescue-and-relief goods' allocation and transportation have been well coordinated, and problems related with market supply and price stability have been resolved, which have provided strong, orderly and effective support for the overall rescue-and-relief operations.

I. Go all out to repair and reconstruct damaged infrastructure

After the earthquake, major infrastructure of the quake-hit area was severely damaged. To resume normal transportation, power supply, telecommunication and water supply is of vital importance and it has direct linkage to the rescue-and-relief operations. All members of the Taskforce mobilize all possible resources to repair major infrastructure, including road, energy supply, telecommunication, water supply, and etc, rush against time to rule out potential risks of dams and quake lakes, coordinate efforts to ensure timely infrastructure reconstruction and rescue-and-relief goods supply, and earmark emergent reconstruction investment to repair damaged infrastructure, endangered reservoirs and to resume water supply in rural areas.

Thanks to arduous efforts of all parties involved, some initial achievement has been made in reconstruction of major infrastructure.

Road: 7 highways in Sichuan Province have been open to traffic on the 13th; by 18th all counties surrounding Wenchuan in the quake-hit area have been connected by at least one road with the outside world; by 26th 407 among the 439 disaster affected towns and villages have road access, and roads of 5 of them are under repair and reconstruction (conditions of the rest 27 are still too bad to be reconstructed.).

Railway: 8 among the 9 damaged trunk railway lines have been open to traffic on the 13th, and the Baoji to Chengdu railway has been resumed on the morning of 24th.

Civil aviation: all 21 airports affected by the quake have been operated normally on the 13rh.

Energy: Except for Beichuan all other 69 quake-affected towns and cities have access to power supply by May 21. The State Grid Corporation provide power supply of 149 among 254 quake-affected towns and villages, and 144 among the 149 have resumed power supply. The 105 towns and villages who used to be covered by local power grid are recovering comparatively slowly. The Lanzhou-Chendu-Yulin oil pipeline resumed its operation on the 13th after a short suspension after the quake.

Telecommunication: Telecommunication in 16 cities and counties was cut off by the quake, and it resumed on the 18th, and by 22nd 109 towns and villages in Sichuan Province (except that Hongguang village of Qingchuan county which has been relocated because of geological reasons.) have access to telecommunication.

TV and radio broadcasting: Among the 32 quake-affected cities and counties, 31 resumed broadcasting except for Wenchuan.

Water supply: The quake damaged water supply facilities in 251 cities and counties in Sichuan, Gasu, Shan'anxi and Chendu, and most of the affected cities and most of the rural areas have access to water supply for people's daily life through emergent repair and temporary solutions.

II. Spare no efforts for the organization, allocation and transportation of rescue-and-relief goods

1. Urgently allocating and transporting central medical reserve to support quake-hit areas. After the earthquake central medicine and equipment reserves are allocated in time to meet the rescue and relief demand. Chinese Medical Group, China Associate (Group) Co. Ltd., Shanghai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd and other undertakers of the central medical reserves, have been assigned to provide more than 100 kinds of medicines (valued 400 million RMB and weighted 1500 tons) to Sichuan and Gansu Provinces, with support from the Civil Aviation Bureau, Ministry of Railway and transportation enterprises by means of charted flights, special trains and container transportation. And central medicine reserve undertakers are organized to produce, purchase and transport undersupplied medicine as quick as possible.

2. Organizing supply of urgently needed machineries and equipments. NDRC and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have been working together to coordinate mechanical enterprises to provide 8 steel road bridges, 625 pieces of engineering machineries (donated included) including cranes, excavators, loaders, bulldozers, 780 pieces of small and medium scale machineries including small generators, hydraulic hammers, internal-combustion cutting machines, 135.400 pieces of jacks, wire clippers, pick mattocks, 40 tons of drilling steels. It has effectively supported the rescue-and-relief operations.

3. Ensuring coal, power and oil supply in the quake-hit areas. Faced with soaring demand of oil by aircrafts and vehicles in used for relief operation, with support of CNPC, SINOPEC, NDRC has increased allocation of oil products to Sichuan, Gansu, Sha'anxi and Chongqing. Besides, a portion of national oil reserve is used to ensure aviation oil supply for airports in Chengdu and Mianyang. With regard to the short supply of coal and power, NDRC coordinates Ministry of Railway, provincial government of Shan'xi, Gansu, and Guizhou, State Grid Corporation and Shenhua Group to increase coal supply for power generation and expand transportation capacity for Sichuan, so as to ensure power supply in Sichuan. Up to now, power supply in Sichuan recovers steadily, and coal storage in major power plants has begun to increase, and oil product stocks remain stable.

4. Ensuring transportation of various rescue-and-relief goods. Together with departments of road, railway and civil aviation, NDRC has transported rescue-and-relief goods, including foodstuff, medicine, tents, epidemic prevention articles, prefabricated houses to the quake-hit areas. Various difficulties have been overcome to ensure the supply of most urgently needed goods, such as meteorological monitoring equipments, emergency telecommunication equipments.

III. Sparing no efforts to ensure the foodstuff and cooking oil supply in disaster-hit area.

NDRC, State Grain Administration and some other departments concerned in a timely manner allocate grain reserve for disaster relief operation, organize grain processing and allocation, so as to ensure the food supply for disaster-affected people and rescue-and-relief personnel. Instruction of “0.5 kg grain ration per person everyday within 3 months” from the State Council Earthquake Rescue-and-Relief Headquarters is earnestly implemented. The first batch of the 384,000 tons of central grain reserve has been transported to Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunan, Sha'anxi, Ganshu, and cooking oil is transported from neighboring provinces to Sichuan. By May 27, central foodstuff reserve has allocated 38000 tons of foodstuff and 850 tons of cooking oil for disaster relief operation. At the same time, all foodstuff departments in Sichuan Province are mandated to appropriately purchase and reserve wheat, coleseed and other produce in the quake-hit area.

Foodstuff departments allocate foodstuff and cooking oil to quake-hit areas according to a comprehensive relief program, and organize food processing enterprises to produce in full capacity to increase food and cooking oil supply. By May 27, foodstuff departments in Sichuan and Gansu Provinces have allocated 42000 and 4000 tons of foodstuff and cooking oil respectively, and so far foodstuff supply in the quake-hit region is stable.

IV. Maintaining stable prices of major goods and daily necessities

NDRC has activated major goods supply and emergent price monitoring and supervision, and prices for major goods and daily necessities are reported twice a day. NDRC has strengthened price supervision on quake-hit area's market and relief goods from other parts of the country, exempted toll for rescue and relief goods transportation, urged relevant enterprises to act according to pricing self-discipline, and adopted effective measures to maintain overall price stability of rescue and relief goods.

Government of Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality, Gansu Province and other provinces and municipalities have so far activated pricing intervention mechanism for foodstuff, pharmaceutical, medical devices, transport, fuel and other major goods, and a few illegal pricing cases have been addressed, and market prices have been well regulated. According to the price inspection, since the occurrence of the earthquake, prices for paddy rice, flour, vegetable, pork, instant noodles, water, biscuits and other foodstuff are maintained at the same level prior to the quake, which constitute favorable market environment for rescue-and-relief operation, people's settlement, production resumption, and after-quake reconstruction.

V. Timely starting up post-quake reconstruction

According to the State Council's instruction, while carrying out rescue-and-relief operation, NDRC has been cooperating with other parties on disaster assessment in the quake-hit area, and NDRC is studying and drafting a comprehensive post-quake reconstruction plan and specific implementation programs on the basis of in-depth investigation and comprehensive assessment. The plan will take full consideration of local geological conditions, resilience of both resource and environment, with rational layout of cities and towns, industry and agriculture, and proper architecture standards. The post-quake reconstruction will be started in full scale once the comprehensive post-quake reconstruction plan and specific implementation programs are finished as soon as possible.

Due to the immense magnitude of loss resulted from the quake, production recovery and reconstruction of the quake-hit region area will be arduous in the near future. According to decision and deployment of the central government, rescue-and-relief will remain to be the top priority of NDRC at present, and NDRC will closely cooperate with relevant departments, organizations and local governments on both rescue-and-relief operations and economic and social development, and it will do its utmost to support the disaster-hit area, maintain stable and rapid economic development, and promote social harmony and stability.

(China Development Gateway May 28, 2008)