China Intensifies Poverty-Relief Efforts For Handicapped 　　Greater effort is needed to reduce poverty and unemployment among China's handicapped people, according to State Councilor Ismail Amat. 　　Amat told a committee working on issues related to handicapped persons that reducing poverty is a nationwide problem and the number of handicapped persons living in poverty is growing every year. 　　More than 7 million impoverished disabled people have no basic living standard guarantees, he added. 　　Government agencies and other departments need to co-operate more closely in taking steps to eliminate poverty among the handicapped, Amat said, and employment is a basic need and an important means to get them to participate socially. 　　Employing the disabled fits the socialist market economy overall, he said, and tax offices and other government departments should work together to develop measures to help the handicapped. 　　He said that there needs to be an effort to avoid displacing handicapped people from their jobs and the disabled who have been laid off need to be given jobs and social security to the maximum possible extent. HomeNews 1999-02-10 Page4 Full Story in Chinese