BEIJING - Lawmakers and political advisors have called for various efforts for poverty alleviation, including stipulation of dedicated law and coordinated efforts in different fields.

A dedicated law for poverty alleviation and development will help shorten the time for the people in the less-developed areas to share the fruits of development, said Lu Zhiming, deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, and vice governor of southwestern Guizhou province, one of China's poorest regions.

Although great achievements in poverty alleviation have been made, there is still room for improvement, Lu added.

"We need to make studies and enact the poverty relief and development law, rather than staying in the policy level as before," said Lu.

Although China is now the world's second largest economy after the United States, it has long suffered from imbalanced development between its coastal and inland areas.

According to Lu, more than 15.2 million people are under the revised poverty line in Guizhou with a population of over 30 million, and more than 1.5 million people need to be relocated as soon as possible for reason of poverty relief.

Students have free lunch at an elementary school in Haiyuan county, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region in this Dec 5, 2011 file photo. A free lunch program was launched in 2011 in Haiyuan county to help students from poor families. The Chinese characters on the wall read "happiness". [Photo/Xinhua]