A video training conference on "two investigations" in Yunnan province (also known as renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas) was held in Kunming recently.

It fully launched an "investigation on human settlements in rural areas" and an "investigation on dilapidated houses in rural areas", and made deployments on key points for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas.

The CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the Party committee and government of Yunnan have been attaching great importance to the renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas of Yunnan Province in recent years. Having a comprehensive understanding of the status, number and distribution of dilapidated houses in the entire province by undertaking a thorough job in "two investigations" is both the basis for comprehensive facilitation of renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas across the province, and the direct basis for work arrangements and task allocation in order to renovate dilapidated houses in rural areas in the future.

"Two investigations" will directly benefit the large number of rural farmers. Compared with previously conducted sampling investigations with small coverage, the "two investigations" has collected basic information about the house and 76 specific indicators under 14 categories, and cover all rural areas in the province.

All houses which meet the criteria for dilapidated housing in rural areas shall be included into the investigations, regardless of the peasant household’s economic status, house status and property ownership certificate. Starting today and ending on December 31, 2014, the investigations will last for 134 days. Human settlement investigation in 16 prefectures (cities), 129 counties (cities and districts), 1,368 townships and 12,907 administrative villages will be completed, and in-home screening of houses of over 8.3 million rural households will be conducted during the period.

Digitization of the investigation results is an important innovation for the two investigations. Standards prescribed in the Technical Guidelines promulgated by the country will be rigorously performed during investigation, and investigation results will be entered into an Information Sheet of Rural House and uploaded to the Management Platform for Village and Township Construction of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development along with photos of the rural houses, to realize the comprehensive digital management of dilapidated houses in rural areas.

Housing and urban-rural development departments of different levels across the province will carry out investigations covering all peasant households by means of division of areas, division of sections to specific persons, household-based responsibility and responsibility for implementation in an area, making sure no house and household is left behind, and thus ensuring a high quality of investigation information.

Housing and urban-rural development departments at different levels will conduct timely random inspections, examinations, and reviews and check the quality of information gleaned from earlier investigations, striving to be realistic, standardized, well-organized, comprehensive and accurate, and never making false reports or failing to report, and effectively helping people in straitened circumstances improve their basic living conditions.

Edited by Brian Salter, Huang Pei