Mar. 8, 2018-- Director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development Liu Yongfu answers questions at a press conference on the "battle" of targeted poverty alleviation during the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xin)
BEIJING, Mar. 8, 2018 -- China has vowed to make increased efforts to eliminate poverty, after significant progress has been made in the past five years, an official said Wednesday.
China will allocate 106.1 billion yuan (about 16.8 billion U.S. dollars) in funding for poverty alleviation work in 2018, some 20 billion yuan more than last year, said Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.
China has lifted more than 68 million people out of poverty over the past five years, Liu told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's national legislature.
Experience should be accumulated and lesson be drawn in poverty reduction work in order to establish a more sustainable mechanism that can increase safety and reduce corruption in the future, according to Liu.
Since November 2015 when China decided to launched a campaign to eliminate poverty, more than 400 people fulfilled jobs at the cost of their lives.
Meanwhile, over 80,000 people were investigated and punished for misconduct during the poverty elimination campaign, including 450 accountable for fraudulent claims or misappropriation of totally 730 million yuan in an inspection of 28 provinces last year, according to Vice Finance Minister Hu Jinglin. |