CHINA / National
148,000 villages to be lifted out of poverty
By Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-18 07:17
China has vowed to lift 148,000 villages out of poverty by 2010. The plan
would benefit 23.6 million people, 80 per cent of the country's rural
poor.
Liu Jian, director of the Chinese State Council Leading Group Office for
Poverty Alleviation and Development, made the remarks yesterday at the
Ministerial Level Poverty Reduction Seminar for Developing Countries in
Beijing.
"Ten per cent of the nation's poverty-reduction funds will be used in job
training for rural people in the next five years so that the group can
enter the non-agricultural job market," Liu said.
"The State Council has recognized 30 labour pilot training bases across
the country. A sound training network will take shape, and it is expected
90 per cent of the rural population will find jobs after they are
trained."
The country will also give more support to major enterprises that
contribute the most to the poverty reduction cause at the local level. To
date the Leading Group Office has authorized 260 such enterprises, which
help more than 13 million poor people.
China launched its poverty reduction campaign in 1986. Up to 2005,
poverty alleviation aid had reached 125.6 billion yuan (US$15.7 billion),
as well as 200 billion yuan (US$25 billion) in interest-free loans, the
Leading Group Office report said.
The number of people living in absolute poverty, those earning less than
683 yuan (US$85.38) a year, decreased from 125 million in 1985 to 23.65
million at the end of 2005, the report said.
More than 70 per cent of villages in 592 counties originally included in
the poverty alleviation plan had access to roads, electricity, telephone
service, satellite TV, safe drinking water and healthcare services at the
end of 2005. The enrolment rate of school-age children was 94.7 per cent.
The number of people lifted out of poverty in China represents 75 per
cent the total of all developing countries, the report said.
"The Chinese leadership has formulated an ambitious vision of balanced
development quite similar to the Millennium Development Goals," UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote in a congratulatory letter released
yesterday. "The UN applauds the emphasis on reducing inequality and
promoting growth that is both sustainable and inclusive."
Liu said that aside from its domestic progress, China would like to
become an international platform for exchange and collaboration on
poverty reduction among developing countries.
China also issued China Poverty Eradication Awards yesterday to 12
individuals and organizations to mark the International Day for the
Eradication of Poverty.
In a written speech to the ceremony, Premier Wen Jiabao said the
eradication of poverty in China requires a sustained and long-term
effort, and governments must do more to improve living conditions in
underdeveloped regions.
Poverty eradication is a historic task for China, said Wen, adding that
society should support and take part in the efforts being made and that
anti-poverty models should be widely publicized.
Among the winners were the United Nations Development Programme, China
Construction Bank, the China Children and Teenagers' Fund, the China
Lifeline Express Foundation and several individuals such as Wang
Guangmei, the wife of former Chairman of People's Republic Liu Shaoqi,
who passed away on Friday.
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