Yunnan shakes off poverty
Southwestern China's Yunnan province declared that it has eradicated poverty through targeted measures. All of its 88 impoverished counties, 8,502 impoverished villages, and 11 ethnic minority groups were taken off the poverty list, according to a press conference held Tuesday.
By Guo Yiming
Southwestern China's Yunnan province has eradicated poverty through targeted measures, a senior local official said Tuesday in the provincial capital Kunming during a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.
Ruan Chengfa, secretary of the Communist Party of China Yunnan Provincial Committee, said that all 88 impoverished counties, 8,502 impoverished villages, and 11 ethnic minority groups have bid farewell to poverty.
He said targeted measures were adopted in the poverty alleviation process, including boosting local industrial development, employment, relocation, ecological compensation, education and training, and social security.
Ruan noted that the province has also renovated dilapidated buildings, provided people with access to safe drinking water, and offered subsistence allowances to the disabled and those who could not work.
"Shaking off poverty is not the end of the story, but a fresh start for even better lives," Ruan said. He vowed to put in place a mechanism to effectively prevent people from falling back into poverty, and roll out targeted measures to consolidate the results of poverty alleviation and ensure that the poverty alleviation goals will be achieved with higher quality.
Yunnan was one of the major battlefields in the country's fight against poverty, as 94% of the province is mountainous areas with little arable lands and frequent natural disasters like earthquakes and landslides.
