Premier Li Keqiang issued an instruction on Jan 16 on the future of shantytown renovations as work begins to meet the target of upgrading six million shacks.

In the instruction, Premier Li said that shantytown renovation was a major development project to improve people’s lives.

He noted that all regions and departments had made strong efforts last year on shantytown renovations, making a significant improvement in the living conditions of poor families.

The renovation task in 2017 is still huge, Premier Li said, urging all regions and departments to come up with new development concepts and carry out their responsibilities well with an aim of promoting supply-side structural reform.

The Premier reminded them that funds should be allocated to achieve this year’s goal of renovating six million shacks, stressing that any illegal actions such as embezzling of related funds would be severely punished.

To ensure people are relocated to a better home, the Premier also said the construction quality of the new houses should be checked, infrastructure facilities must be provided and the ratio of monetized resettlement could be increased.