CHINA DAILY Friday, March 8, 2019 | 5 TWO SESSIONS Poverty eradication on track Goal is to have minimum annual income Poverty alleviation has helped basic clothing, and their needs in develop local industries, improve terms of medical services, education of 4,000 yuan nationwide by end-2020 infrastructure, enhance public ser- and housing should be met, he said. vices and protect the environment, In response to a question about By ZHAO XINYING ments in poverty alleviation over benefiting not only those formerly whether a slowing economy and [email protected] the past six years since the 18th living in want, but all residents in trade disputes will affect the coun- National Congress of the Commu- rural regions, he added. try’s poverty alleviation progress, China plans to lift 10 million people nist Party of China in November However, with only 20 months Liu said the external environment in rural areas out of poverty this year, 2012. The number of people living in left to meet the end-2020 poverty may bring some uncertainty, but a senior official said on Thursday. poverty has decreased from 99 mil- eradication goal, Liu said special China will take measures to reduce That would leave about 6 million lion in 2012 to 16.6 million last year, attention will be paid to the quality the impact as much as possible and still awaiting to emerge from hard- Liu said. of poverty alleviation. will achieve the goal of eradicating ship in order to achieve the goal of Eight municipalities and provin- “We have very strict standards poverty by the end of 2020. eradicating poverty nationwide by cial-level regions — Beijing, Tianjin, and processes for measuring exactly He said possible downsides may the end of 2020. Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, how and when people emerge from include some enterprises employing More than 300 counties are Guangdong, Fujian and Shandong poverty. Also, for a county or village, fewer people, making it harder for National People’s Congress deputy Liu Guozhong (center), who is expected to be taken off the list of — have largely rooted out poverty. the standard is that people living in some impoverished people to find also governor of Shaanxi province, answers reporters’ questions impoverished areas this year, and the Among the 832 impoverished extreme poverty should account for jobs. But these problems could be during the ongoing session of the NPC on Thursday in Beijing. remainder will be delisted in 2020 if counties nationwide, 28 were no more than 2 percent of the popu- offset by other measures, such as XU JINGXING / CHINA DAILY everything progresses well, Liu Yong- removed from the poverty list in lation in Central China and 3 per- developing industries in impover- fu, director of the State Council Lead- 2016 and 125 in 2017. Another 280 cent in Western China,” he said. ished villages, thus helping them ing Group Office of Poverty counties have become richer last Part of the goal is that minimum find jobs without having to migrate Alleviation and Development, said at year and are expected to soon be annual incomes must reach 4,000 to big cities. a news conference on the sidelines of delisted after final assessments, Liu yuan ($600) by 2020. And by that “You should believe that China Shaanxi determined the ongoing two sessions. said. The rest, fewer than 400, are time, people shouldn’t have to worry has the capability and the measures China has made great achieve- targets for this year and next year. about being able to afford food or (to meet the 2020 goal),” he said. to fight red tape, root out corruption By LI LEI [email protected] Shaanxi province reiterated its We’ll track down any resolution to fight excessive sign of corruption, bureaucracy and root out graft, just months after the country and hunt down brought to justice a large number anyone involved.” of officials involved in massive vil- la projects built to the detriment of Liu Guozhong, governor of the environment. Shaanxi province While speaking on Thursday at a panel discussion during the ongo- cated by the State. More than 200 ing gathering of the top legislature hectares of land were returned to in Beijing, Liu Guozhong, governor farmers, and another 176 hectares of Shaanxi, pledged zero tolerance reforested. for corruption and misdeeds. The massive demolition begin- “We’ll track down any sign of ning last summer was accompa- corruption, and hunt down any- nied by the ouster of some of one involved,” he said. Shaanxi’s most powerful figures, The governor said he expects including Zhao Zhengyong, the political atmosphere in his former Party secretary of Shaanxi, province will improve over time and Wei Minzhou, a former senior as the anti-graft campaign goes legislator in the province. on, and sustained efforts will be An inspection team from the made to reinforce environmental Central Commission for Discipline protection within his jurisdic- Inspection — the nation’s top anti- tion. graft body — found that villas Liu said 1,185 luxury villa units began to appear near the reserve in the foothills of the Qinling long before Zhao’s tenure as pro- Mountains have been demolished vincial Party chief, which ran from Miao ethnic group deputy Shi Liping (center right) talks with Sui ethnic group deputy Song Shuixian (center left) at a meeting for Guizhou since July amid efforts to restore 2012 to 2016. province at the ongoing session of the National People’s Congress, which was open to reporters in Beijing on Thursday. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY the ecological balance near a Local officials launched a high- nature reserve on the outskirts of profile campaign that year and Xi’an, the provincial capital. tore down 202 illegal structures The mountains serve as a natu- owned by farmers, but left the Guizhou’s efforts to improve lives paying off ral boundary between China’s upscale villas untouched. north and south, and are home to a And apart from a failure to act in huge variety of plants and protect- line with the central leadership’s By WANG ZHUOQIONG improved thanks to the relocation meeting open to reporters. port accurate poverty reduction by ed animals. directives, People’s Daily said the and YANG JUN projects. “This year, Guizhou aims to relo- mixing data and rural industry The governor said another nine officials in question also approved Luo said about 2,156 relocated cate another 560,000 residents in reforms, said Shen Yiqin, governor villa complexes along with about additional real estate projects in Luo Yinghe, a National People’s people have landed jobs at 263 order to reach the target of 1.88 mil- of Guizhou. 300 hectares of land were confis- the area. Congress deputy and Party secre- enterprises in the zone and another lion people,” said Sun. The priority is “We sell top-notch agricultural tary of Xinmin neighorhood in 169 households have launched their to help the new community resi- products from mountainous Huishui county, Guizhou province, own businesses. dents enjoy a stable life and improve regions to the global market used to live in village with no access In June, a new primary school their incomes, he added. through the digital economy and big What they say to clean water, roads or the internet. and kindergarten for the relocated The province’s target in 2019 is to data technology,” said Shen. His hometown is located in one of community in Huishui was opened, pull another 1.1 million people out of By promoting the cultivation of the most remote mountainous with an investment of 120 million poverty, said Sun. high-yield corn in villages in the The integrated structure construction, industrial col- regions in the province. “We had to yuan ($17.88 million) and capacity Meanwhile, the province’s gover- province, the province has provided development plan laboration and human resource walk miles and miles over moun- for 1,900 students. nor said that Guizhou has China’s 6.67 million mu (445,133 hectares) of the Yangtze Riv- exchanges are of key importance. The tains just to buy some daily grocer- Luo said that last year, the average first big data pilot zone, and it has of corn to the market. er Delta enables region will boost construction of high- ies,” Luo said. per capita income reached 4,800 already adopted big data in lifting Furthermore, the province has Anhui province to speed railways and expressways, and In 2016, Luo and 4,685 villagers yuan. The number of private vehi- more people out of poverty. developed the country’s first rural become a key part also build more ports to form a multi- from 58 villages moved to their new cles increased to 380 from 120 in Guizhou has attracted many intellectual transportation schedul- of a national strat- dimensional transport system for apartment buildings in an econom- 2017. internet giants including Huawei, ing system to help rural residents egy. It signals that Guangxi to quickly connect with the ic development zone in Huishui. The province, ranked first in the Tencent, Alibaba and Apple to commute and deliver small packa- Anhui can seize the opportunity to be a Greater Bay Area. Guangxi will focus on On the opening day of the Gui- number of people being lifted out of establish cloud computing and big ges. gateway to access global resources. key industries and bring in the area’s zhou delegation meeting during poverty, has completed relocation of data centers. Under the plan, Anhui will scientifically innovative technologies and new plat- the second session of the 13th NPC 1.32 million people so far, said Sun The province has employed big Contact the writers at position itself and use its strength in forms to aid the region’s industrial in Beijing on Tuesday, Luo said Zhigang, Party secretary of the Gui- data technology to poverty allevia- wangzhuoqiong@ scientific innovation and industrial upgrade.