Vocational schools set to aid poverty alleviation

Progress

Mountainous Guangxi is one of seven poor provincial regions to benefit from the campaign to end domestic poverty by the end of the year.

China has made great progress in eradicating rural poverty since late 2012, when the number of rural poor stood at 98.99 million.

By the end of last year, the figure had fallen to 5.51 million, according to the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

Meanwhile, the number of counties on the "impoverished counties" index, which tracks progress in regional poverty reduction, had fallen from 832 in 2015 to 52 by the end of last year.

The counties that are still officially labeled as impoverished are scattered across Guangxi, the provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu, and the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions.

Guangxi, home to several ethnic groups who maintain primitive production methods and lifestyles, has eight such counties.

In a circular released in February, the poverty alleviation office pledged to increase monitoring of progress in the counties and 1,113 villages under its jurisdiction.

It also suggested that funding and other resources should be redirected to help places lagging behind to cast off their "impoverished" label on schedule.

The monitors mainly check to see if relief efforts have met the basic requirements set out by the office to achieve the goal.

The main priorities are access to safe drinking water and three basic public services－affordable healthcare, safe housing and compulsory education－which are collectively known as "the three securities".

The monitors also assess whether people who have recently escaped poverty are earning stable incomes and if disabled or senior citizens are covered by safety net programs.

Liu Yongfu, head of the campaign, said the elimination of poverty is a fundamental requirement for the construction a "moderately prosperous society".

The Communist Party of China has pledged to realize this aim before its centenary next year, as one of its "Two Centenary Goals".

The other goal is to turn the People's Republic of China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by its centenary in 2049.