Hunan to encourage people living in poverty to work abroad

Central China's Hunan province plans to encourage people living in poverty to work abroad to achieve its goal of poverty alleviation, according to Xinhua, citing information from the province's poverty relief authorities.

These workers in poverty-stricken families should be aged 18 to 40, in good health and have some skills. As long as they are one of the government designated poverty-stricken families in the province, they can volunteer to be an immigrant worker in another country.

The province aims to send more than 10,000 of these workers abroad in the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), and therefore help more than 10,000 households escape poverty.

The advantages of working abroad are stable life and high income, said an official from the poverty relief authorities.

Hunan has 17 immigrant agents and 42 related service platforms. They send more than 70,000 workers abroad every year. More than 100,000 are currently working in another country, according to data from the province's commerce department.

By 2016, Hunan still had swathes of poverty-stricken areas in Wuling Mountains and Luoxiao Mountains. There are 49 counties designated poor and more than 3.3 million impoverished people.