Vice Premier calls for scientific quake reconstruction

Reconstruction in the earthquake-affected zone in southwest China's Sichuan Province should be conducted in a scientific, orderly and efficient manner, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli has stressed.

Zhang made the comments during a conference in Beijing on Friday afternoon, after he had accompanied President Xi Jinping earlier this week to visit the province's Lushan County, which was hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake last month.

Efforts should be made to ensure that the quake damage assessment is comprehensive and accurate, and the reconstruction plan should be formulated in a scientific manner, Zhang said.

The reconstruction should be integrated with the economic structure optimization, environmental improvement and the betterment of local people's livelihoods, he said.

The reconstruction should take both short-term and long-term situations into account, and should be balanced to ensure economic development and ecological progress, he added.

The government should formulate relevant policies to support the reconstruction, and both governmental and social resources should be given full play, he said.

Zhang also stressed that government funds allocated for the quake reconstruction should be properly used.

Representatives from relevant central government departments and the provincial government in Sichuan attended the conference.

Zhang told the officials to carefully implement the instructions of President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang on the reconstruction of the quake zone, as well as relevant decisions made by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and State Council meetings.

Zhang noted that the reconstruction is important to the public's immediate interests and it may be arduous and painstaking.