Top legislature calls for innovative approach to end poverty on schedule

China's top legislature is calling for innovative measures to help deliver the country's zero-poverty promise before 2021, a report released by the National People's Congress Standing Committee said on Tuesday.

With wiping out extreme poverty for the first time in Chinese history on the horizon, the report said the focus will be on the most underdeveloped rural regions, as well as on people who are most vulnerable.

Grassroots officials are encouraged to take tough and unconventional steps to ensure that people inhabiting underdeveloped regions have access to education, healthcare, housing and safe drinking water.