Poverty alleviation gains momentum

Although China has made continuous efforts in poverty alleviation in the past, it has never been able to offer as much financial or policy support as it does now to help people get out of poverty, a senior official of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region said.

"The new round of poverty alleviation is very different from before. China has reached the stage that it has a strong base to tackle the poverty issue from the root. More important, the central government has vowed to win the battle against poverty by 2020 and has made it a major goal," Ma Hancheng, vice-chairman of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region and a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress, said on the sidelines of the ongoing session in Beijing.

As a landlocked region, Ningxia has long been hampered in development by poor transportation infrastructure and a lack of water resources. Also, a large number of people in rural areas have been living in extreme poverty for generations. Now they say they have seen hope of leaving their impoverished lives behind for good, Ma said.