China has achieved "significant and decisive progress" in the "tough battle" against poverty, Vice Premier Hu Chunhua said at the National Meeting on Poverty Reduction and Development held in Beijing on Thursday and Friday.
Hu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, called for efforts in the work to lift about 10 million rural residents out of poverty nationwide in 2019, which he described as a "crucial year" to secure a victory in the "tough battle" against poverty.
China has vowed to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020. It has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty since the start of its reform and opening-up four decades ago.
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Next year, priorities in poverty alleviation include providing basic social services to poor people, intensifying efforts to help the most poverty-stricken regions and special groups of impoverished people, as well as taking follow-up measures to improve the livelihood of relocated people, according to Hu.
The vice premier also called for better synergy between the poverty alleviation and rural vitalization strategies, closer cooperation between the country's eastern and western regions in poverty relief, and targeted measures to reduce poverty.
Harvesting oranges at a farm in Rongjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, December 1, 2018. /VCG Photo
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The fight against poverty is one of China's "three tough battles" in the goal to deliver a moderately prosperous society by 2020. The other two are nationwide efforts to prevent financial risks and tackle pollution.
According to a statement issued after the annual Central Economic Work Conference last week, China has won "the initial victory in its three tough battles" this year, and targeted efforts will be taken in 2019. Areas in abject poverty and special groups will receive more government support, it said.
(Cover: New buildings in a relocated village in Tongqin Town, Wuyi County, east China's Zhejiang Province, November 22, 2018. /VCG Photo)