New powerhouse takes economic transformation up a gear (5)

Huang says the municipal government will invest more than 300 billion yuan in improving living standards over the next two and half years.With soaring home prices squeezing ordinary Chinese off the property ladder, Chongqing is building 40 million square meters of apartments to house 2 million low and middle income people in the next three years.That would mean a third of Chongqing's urban center population living in public rental housing, with rents 40 percent below market rates."Chongqing is determined to give priority to better living standards, which will drive up domestic demand and boost economic growth." says Yang Qingyu, director of the Chongqing Development and Reform Commission.