Three Gorges Area to Close 800 EnterprisesChina will shut down 800 enterprises in the Three Gorges areas in three years, which are losing money and producing heavy pollution.State-owned enterprises, collective-owned companies and individual firms each make up one third of the total, according to local official sources. According to state policies, enterprises in the Three Gorges areas that are big polluters and losing money in management are to be closed down instead of moving to other places. A total of 1,500 enterprises in the Three Gorges Dam area are to be relocated to make way for the construction of the Dam, with more than one million people to be immigrated. The Three Gorges Dam, the largest in the world to generate electricity and combat flood, is to be completed in 2008 Local officials say that the 800 shut-down enterprises with 90, 000 employees, can get a compensation premium of 2 billion yuan from the state, and the money will be first used for resettling the laid-off workers and helping them find new jobs. |
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