The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Friday it has approved an emergency assistance loan amounting to 400 million dollars to help millions of people devastated by a powerful earthquake in China nine months ago.
The Manila-based ADB said the loans will be used in rebuilding roads and school buildings in China's Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, which were worst hit by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake that struck in May 2008.
The ADB said the project will benefit 5.6 million people, including many poor rural dwellers that were left homeless, isolated and without livelihoods by the quak, dpa reported.
"The project will help to revive economic activity in the affected provinces, enabling people to resume and improve their livelihoods and return to normal life," said Manmohan Parkash, an official of the ADB's East Asia department.
"The primary lesson from the earthquake is that new buildings, including schools, need to be designed to withstand seismic shocks and be built to a higher quality," he added.
The loan followed two earlier ADB technical assistance grants totaling 1.6 million dollars that were given to assess the quake damage and reconstruction needs and to help the government develop a comprehensive disaster risk management system.