China steps up policy support to areas of extreme poverty

BEIJING - China has concentrated efforts to assist areas of extreme poverty as the stated deadline to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020 approaches.

From 2018 to 2020, China's central budget would allocate 214 billion yuan (about 31 billion US dollars) to places including the Tibet autonomous region and parts of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region where abject poverty still persists, said Ou Qingping, deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, at a press briefing Wednesday.

Apart from the hefty funds, the government has also mobilized efforts from 76,400 private businesses in poverty alleviation, which has benefited more than 10 million people, Ou said.

China has vowed to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020. As the deadline approaches, the country is focusing on the nation's poorest people, who mainly dwell in deep mountains with adverse natural environment and backward infrastructure or have special needs.

To make the poverty reduction more effective, China has identified 334 counties suffering from extreme poverty and provided targeted support to the areas.

In 2018, China lifted 13.86 million people in rural areas out of poverty, with the number of impoverished rural residents dropping from 98.99 million in late 2012 to 16.6 million by the end of last year.