On Feb 22, a first-quarter press conference was held that revealed that Inner Mongolia promised to invest 110 billion yuan ($16 billion) to construct 220,000 dwellings for shantytowns in urban areas, with ambitious plans to improve people’s livelihoods and city environments.

Inner Mongolia has already completed infrastructure transformations for forest and reclamation areas over the past few years, and started work on 15,000 dwellings in urban areas since the beginning of 2017, according to the office of housing construction.

The fund-raising capital for construction is around 88 billion yuan, and the regional government will negotiate with financial institutions and banks for support with loans and borrowing.

Several cities including Baotou, Hulunbuir, Chifeng and Ordos have applied for around 46.3 billion yuan from China Construction Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China and the Bank of Communications, who have supported the government to build a total of 82,000 dwellings for people currently living in shantytowns.

The regional housing departments also encouraged companies, especially State-owned real estate corporations as well as large private businesses, to issue debentures for backing up the transformation of shantytowns.