2011-03-02 21:24

BEIJING - Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu Wednesday called for more efforts to reduce poverty and increase China's capability for sustainable development to support the building of a well-off society.

Hui was speaking in Beijing at a conference of members of the State Council Leading Group on Poverty Alleviation and Development.

China had achieved significant progress in poverty relief, but it should be remembered that the country still faced an "arduous task" in poverty reduction in the next 10 years, he said.

China was still developing in an unbalanced way, with a widening gap between poverty-stricken areas and other regions and a huge impoverished population, he said.

Hui said the government should put more efforts into poverty relief by increasing incomes of the poor and boosting the development of poverty-stricken areas to achieve coordinated development of all regions.

The government should continue to carry out its poverty-alleviation plan, with more financial input and policy support, enhanced management and improvement in the rural subsistence allowance system, he said.

By the end of last year, the percentage of the rural population with an annual income below the poverty line of 1,274 yuan dropped 25.3 percent to 26.88 million, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).