It is time to use this money to improve rural roads and homes, to build better public services and to give small loans to new businesses. Funds have been previously provided to poor areas to develop specific sectors including tourism and solar panel manufacturing, Liu said.

Beyond short-term programs, the government is thinking about long-term benefits. Free vocational education and training will be provided for 2 million young people in poor areas each year. They will be expected to acquire a practical skill or technique in two or three years, Liu said.

China plans "precision" (targeted) poverty alleviation, providing different help to people with different problems. A database of all poor people established in 2014 will make targeted poverty relief possible, Liu said.

"Poverty alleviation used to be on a 'one-size-fits-all' basis, which meant that everyone with an income below a certain level would enjoy the same subsidies and allowances," he said.

Wang Sangui, a poverty relief specialist at Beijing's Renmin University, believes that effective poverty relief relies on precisely identifying particularly needy groups.

"If the 43.3 billion yuan spent last year was evenly distributed among the 70 million people in poverty, the average amount of 1.7 yuan a day would have been unlikely to improve anyone's situation," said Wang.

China wants an "all-round well-off" society by 2020, a goal which includes specific requirements in GDP, income per capita, college enrollment rates and the number of doctors per 1,000 people.