Senior Chinese official urges improving quality of poverty alleviation

BEIJING - The quality and effectiveness of China's battle against poverty should be enhanced, a senior Chinese official said Friday.

Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while presiding over a meeting of the State Council leading group on poverty relief and development.

Wang, head of the group, said that despite decisive advances made in the battle against poverty, there were still difficulties ahead.

He said poverty relief work must be improved by targeting problems, and stepping up precision on poverty reduction through optimizing tailored policies.

"Local authorities are encouraged to innovate pragmatic approaches in targeted policy execution," Wang said.

China aims to complete the building of a "moderately prosperous society in all respects" by 2020, which requires the eradication of poverty.

To achieve that target, China needs to lift more than 10 million people out of poverty every year.