State to Help Ethnic Groups Out of Poverty
More assistance is being promised to help lift poor ethnic minority people out of poverty, an official of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC), said on January 21 in Beijing.
Economic development and poverty alleviation are top priorities for the turn of the century, said Li Dezhu, minister of SEAC. Border trade, which has already proven to be effective and profitable in ethnic regions, is expected to be promoted, Li said. About 19,000 kilometers of the country's 22,000-kilometer-long borderline winds through ethnic regions.
People earning less than 500 yuan (US$60) a year are defined as poverty-stricken in China. Poverty elimination programs are trying to provide these people with adequate food and clothing.
The central government has vowed to wipe out poverty by the end of 2000. Poverty still affects 50 million people. At least 20 million of them belong to ethnic groups. Help will be provided first to ethnic minority groups who have relatively better living conditions and development options and lower populations. Their beneficial experience will then be spread to other minority groups, according to an official of SEAC.
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