China targets ambitious anti-poverty goals

China’s top poverty alleviation department will establish a database to tabulate the poor in 2016 and help lift them out of poverty more efficiently and effectively, the head of the department said on Thursday.

“The database is fundamental for the government to launch poverty alleviation policies more precisely,” said Liu Yongfu, head of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

Liu spoke at the 2015 National Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development in Beijing, where officials from poverty alleviation offices from all of China’s provinces had gathered.

Besides setting up database, the office will establish provincial-level financial platforms to raise money to fight poverty and also build county-level resource distribution hubs to manage the funds.

“2016 is the opening year of China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and we will write the guidelines for China to fight poverty in 2016, to fulfill the goal to lift more than 70 million people out of poverty by 2020,” Liu added.

“Ministers from various departments have sought instruction from our office and have been cooperating with us to fight poverty,” Liu said.

Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, visited Hebei province in November and said that his ministry will support local economic development and help lift the poor out of poverty by teaching them professional skills.

Minister of Transportation Yang Chuantang promised to build more roads to poverty-stricken areas to boost regional development.

Poverty alleviation will be carried out from many perspectives, including improving education and carrying out financial plans in poverty-stricken areas.

The central government has placed great emphasis on the country’s poverty alleviation efforts in the 13th Five-Year Plan.

On Dec 8, president Xi Jinping urged governments at all levels to beef-up “precision” poverty relief measures as the country plans to lift all poor people out of poverty by 2020.

In December, guidelines on poverty alleviation were jointly issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. The document described the goal of eliminating poverty to be the most arduous task on China's path toward building a moderately prosperous society.

According to official numbers, more than 600 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty in the past three decades, accounting for about 70 percent of the total number globally.

At the end of last year, just over 70 million people in rural China lived at or below the domestic poverty line of 2,300 RMB in annual income at 2010 price standards.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn