The government of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will continue to allocate large sums of money in 2016 toward enhancing local livelihood, authorities said.
A total of 110 billion yuan (about 17 billion U.S. dollars) will be handed out this year to help steer 100 projects covering employment, housing, agriculture, poverty-relief and other fields, according to the Standing Committee of the regional Party Committee.
About 10,000 villages in Xinjiang will receive 500,000 yuan each to "improve livelihood," according to the committee. Meanwhile, 600 million yuan will be used for poverty relief in 1,200 poor villages, and 24 billion yuan will be used to build houses for 300,000 rural herdsmen.
The funding is part of the region's seventh "Livelihood-building Year," an initiative started by the regional government.
About 600 billion yuan has been mobilized in the past six years thanks to the high-profile initiative, which has been credited with helping improve the livelihood of the local population.
