BEIJING, Aug. 19 -- China is making steady progress in its housing renovation plan for rundown urban areas, with construction beginning on 2.07 million homes in dilapidated regions in the first seven months, data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development showed Monday.

The government plans to start renovation on 2.89 million homes in rundown urban areas in 2019, meaning the country had achieved 71.6 percent of the annual target by the end of last month.

During the January-July period, more than 600 billion yuan (about 85.3 billion U.S. dollars) was invested in the renovation projects, according to the ministry.

Shantytown transformation has remained a priority for the government in recent years. China aims to renovate 15 million dilapidated homes from 2018 to 2020 to speed up its urbanization drive and improve people's livelihood.