China Drafts New Plan to Aid the PoorChina's science and technology aid-the-poor plan for the coming 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005) will focus on science promotion in ethnic minority areas in west China, areas of former revolutionary bases and border areas.Li Xueyong, Vice Minister of Science and Technology said Sunday, December 17, at a national conference on aid-the-poor through science and technology that the major target for aid-the-poor is to increase poor farmers' annual incomes and push ahead social andeconomic sustainable development of the poverty-stricken areas. Li said, to achieve these goals, his ministry will allocate ore funds to the aid-the-poor programs and launch more demonstration programs. The vice minister said, his ministry will help build more industrial and agricultural ventures with local characteristics for different kinds of poor areas. He said another important task for scientists and techniciansis to establish a technology-based aid-the-poor information network nationwide and train more administrative personnel, local technicians and poor farmers. The two-day conference is aimed at summing up the country's experiences at aiding the poor during the past 15 years and drafting detailed plans for aid-the-poor with science and technology in the next five years. In the past 15 years, about 290,000 scientists and technicians have traveled to poverty-stricken areas to launch aid-the-poor activities and nearly 10 million farmers have been trained in the poor areas. |
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