Authorities in Sichuan said it will take eight years and hundreds of billions of yuan to rebuild areas damaged by last month’s earthquake, the South China Morning Post reported, citing state media. The director of the Sichuan Development and Reform Commission unveiled a reconstruction plan for the region in which the first three years would focus on repairing damaged infrastructure with economic rebuilding to begin in 2011. A chief economist at the Sichuan Academy of Social Science said it would take at least US$29-43 billion (RMB200-300 million) to bring the local economy back to pre-quake levels. He also said the quake would slow Sichuan’s GDP growth by two percentage points in the first half of this year.