China has allocated more than 50 billion yuan ($7.90 billion) since 2008 to allow resource-exhausted cities to achieve sustainable development, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on Friday.

About 6.84 billion yuan was invested in revamping the geological environment of those cities, the NDRC said.

More than 76,000 hectares of coal-exhausted mines in these areas were treated thanks to a slew of environmental protection measures.

The State Council chose Fuxin, Liaoning province, as the first resource-exhausted city to undertake its economic structural transformation in 2001.

Since 2008, the NDRC, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Land and Resources jointly selected a total number of 69 resource-exhausted cities.

lanlan@chinadaily.com.cn