TAIYUAN, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- North China's Shanxi Province has spent heavily to relocate residents from poor areas to complete the country's target of eradicating poverty by 2020.

The province spent nearly 13 billion yuan (2 billion U.S. dollars) for relocation projects in the province over the past two years, an official with the provincial poverty alleviation office said Friday.

"Parts of the fund have been used for construction of new houses, allowances for the relocated as well as the salary of construction workers engaged in the relocation projects," the official said.

Shanxi Province has planned to resettle 560,000 residents from 2016 to 2020. To date, more than 300,000 have moved to new homes.