China's Annual Political Season: Poverty alleviation efforts step up ahead of goal

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E-commerce may be the key to relieving China's poverty by next year. NPC deputies explained how, prior to Friday's second plenary meeting of the 2nd session of the 13th National People's Congress. Reporter Tang Bo has more.

Wiping out poverty remains top of mind, and top of agenda, for NPC deputies, four of whom talked about poverty alleviation through e-commerce.

Ma Zhengshan, a county-level government official from Yunnan Province, and an ethnic minority, says his hometown used to be geographically isolated.

But not anymore.

MA ZHENGSHAN NPC DEPUTY "A tunnel has been built and we've been well connected with the outside world. By the end of last year, the entire Dulong ethnic group had risen above poverty, and our poverty incidence dropped to 2.63 percent."

Ma says that has a lot to do with infrastructure and telecommunication improvements as well as a boom in online business opportunities.

Sentiments echoed by Liang Qianjuan, an online store owner in Northwestern China's Gansu Province, who helped over 300 local farmers and their families augment their incomes.

LIANG QIANJUAN NPC DEPUTY "Among these 300 families, 100 of them used to be low-income ones. With the help of e-commerce, their local products have been able to break the geographic isolation and reach bigger markets far away from us."

TANG BO BEIJING "Presdient Xi Jinping called on Thursday for a strong confidence to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty by 2020 by all-around effort. And e-commerce is definitely going to help as China is expected to stimulate its consumption to reach the target of this year's economic growth. Tang Bo, CGTN, Beijing."