Well-tuned steps urged for poverty eradication

President Xi Jinping underlined on Monday the need to shore up areas of weakness and carry out more targeted poverty alleviation efforts in building the country into a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark while presiding over the fourth meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs. Xi is head of the committee.

The meeting stressed the importance of achieving targets for poverty alleviation across the board and focusing efforts on areas of extreme poverty, according to a statement released after the meeting.

It is important to tackle the remaining difficulties faced by people still confronting hardships in terms of their access to education, medical care, quality housing and safe drinking water after ensuring that their basic needs for food and clothing have been met, the statement said.

It added that solving prominent environmental pollution problems must be prioritized to ensure periodical targets can be achieved before 2020.

The meeting called for expanded investment in compulsory education, basic medical care, housing, drinking water, eldercare and child care, in addition to addressing other pressing issues for some groups in society.

Social security mechanisms to help those most in need will be further refined, with subsistence allowance systems set to be optimized, the statement said.

The meeting also called for full implementation of requirements set in the Central Economic Work Conference, the annual policymaking meeting held in December.

The meeting urged an even more proactive fiscal policy and full implementation of tax and fee cuts.

Monetary policy will be eased or tightened to the right degree, and it will be adjusted in accordance with economic growth and real-time inflationary and pricing scenarios, the statement said, adding that financial support for the real economy will be bolstered.

The country will continue to deepen supply-side structural reform and consolidate outcomes in its efforts to cut overcapacity, reduce excess inventory, deleverage entities and lower costs, the statement said.

More efforts will also be made to strengthen the dynamics of micro-entities, improve industry chains and ensure unimpeded flow of goods and services in the national economy.

The meeting also pledged major new outcomes through enhanced reform and opening-up.

More work will be done to seize new opportunities, improve scientific and technological innovation capacity and speed up green development, said the statement, which also stressed the need for the country to take part in the reform of the global economic governance system.

It is also important to resolutely guard against the practice of formalities for formalities' sake and excessive bureaucracy, as well as prevent fraud to ensure implementation of requirements set in the Central Economic Work Conference.