Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, briefs the media on China's plans to achieve the goal of poverty alleviation in the next five years on Tuesday, Dec.15, 2015. [Photo: china.com.cn]
The Chinese government has briefed the media on plans to achieve the goal of poverty alleviation in the next five years.
Details were given by Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, at a news conference on Tuesday.
He says eliminating poverty is the most arduous task for China in establishing an all-round well-off society.
"The main goal is to ensure people living below the poverty line in rural areas have access to food, clothes, basic education, medical care, and a safe home by 2020. By that time, poverty shall already be eradicated in rural areas and there will be no more poverty-stricken counties in the country."
Liu urged governments at all levels to take more targeted and precise measures to fight against poverty.
According to Liu, China has created an initial appraisal plan to assess poverty alleviation progress in 22 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities that have signed poverty reduction acts.
"The result of poverty reduction will be a main factor in appraisal, including the population being lifted out of poverty, the income increase of poverty-stricken population, and the number of counties being lifted out of poverty."
More than 600 million Chinese people have escaped poverty in the past three decades, about 70 percent of the total global achievement.
At the end of last year, over 70 million people in the countryside lived below China's poverty line.
