“The richest place in China is in Guangdong, the poorest place is also in Guangdong.” This issue is a heated topic at the ongoing annual session of Guangdong Provincial People's Congress and Political Consultative Conference in the southern province. Guangdong pledges to fight to reduce the gap between rich and poor, helping 1,790,000 people shake off poverty.

In 2015, the GDP of Guangdong was 7.28 trillion yuan, ranking the top of all the provinces in China. Such a high figure for GDP means the gulf between the richest and poorest is much more serious than in other provinces as well. From 2011 to 2015, Guangdong raised 2.492 million people out of poverty. Based on the standard disposable income of 4,000 yuan per year for each rural family, there are still 467,000 families, or some 1.79 million people, will be living in poverty from 2016 to 2018.

To deal with the issue of poverty, Guangdong government plans to start a poverty alleviation project. In addition to traditional economic development, new and diversified ways of business should be applied. For some poor, mountainous areas, green ecological agriculture and leisure agriculture industrial zones can be explored. Rural E-commerce is another popular way of enriching small villages. What’s more, committee members suggested at the NPC and CPPCC that education should never be neglected during the process of overcoming poverty. Some members also proposed to make good use of the active good will from Hong Kong and Macau citizens.