China to Lift 10 million People Out Of Poverty
A senior Chinese official on January 20 called for the country's concerted effort to enable 10 million impoverished people to have access to adequate food and clothing by the year end and said fulfilling the task is crucial to achieving the country's overall plan of eliminating poverty by the year 2000.
Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao said China faces grave challenges in achieving those goals in 1999 and 2000.
Natural disasters and other factors dragged down the income of farmers last year and plunged those who had already become better-off back into poverty, he said.
Wen criticized some localities for lax efforts in tackling this and urged earnest and determined implementation of the responsibility system that holds local leading Party and government officials accountable for the work.
While continuing to increase financial input to support the campaign to eliminate poverty, attention must be paid to ensure that poor areas in central and western regions get more major capital construction projects, including infrastructure involving transport and water conservancy, said Wen.
Supervision over funds for poverty relief should be tightened and those who divert or misuse these special funds must be severely disciplined, the vice-premier said.
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