The fund for people relocated due to the Three Gorges Dam hit a record high after a business agreement was signed in Beijing during the ongoing session of the National People's Congress.
According to the agreement, Ruyi Group from eastern Shandong Province will invest 1.5 billion yuan (US$181 million) in a textile project in southwestern Chongqing Municipality in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.
It will boost the total aid effort in the area to more than 20 billion yuan.
Through the end of last year, 21 provinces and municipalities, more than 10 large and medium-sized cities, and 50-plus government departments have donated 4 billion yuan in aid and invested more than 15 billion yuan in the area, said Pu Haiqing, NPC deputy and office director of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee.
The contributions are nearly 50 percent of the money needed to relocate 1.2 million residents from the Three Gorges region and help them adapt to a new life, Pu said.
More than 980,000 people have already relocated, representing about 82 percent of those who will be displaced by the world's biggest hydropower project along the Yangtze River.
Pu said nearly 85 percent of the displaced migrants were from Chongqing. The remaining 15 percent were from central Hubei Province.
"We have moved 160,000 migrants to the relatively affluent coastal regions including Shanghai, as well as Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces," Pu said.
The area where the residents formerly lived will be submerged when the massive 185-meter dam is completed in 2009.
Since 2003, the hydropower project has already produced benefits. The project's target to create a capacity of 89 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity may eventually be exceeded, Pu said.
Eleven generators are already on line. The first generator became operational on July 10, 2003. The project reported a 5.3 billion yuan profit last year.
Launched in 1993, the Three Gorges Water Control Project has also been designed to prevent floods on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.