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Josephine Ma

80pc of poor live in the areas targeted in five-year programme, says official

China has formulated an ambitious plan to lift 148,000  villages out of poverty over the next five years.

Speaking at a poverty reduction seminar yesterday, Liu Jian  , director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development,  said  the  government planned  to improve the villages' infrastructure and social services and  find means to increase their income.

The seminar was attended by poverty alleviation officials and representatives from the UN and foreign embassies.

The government was targeting these  villages because they were home to 80 per cent of the nation's poor, he said.

According to official statistics from last year, 2.365  million people live below the  poverty line - an annual income of 683  yuan - which  means they do not have enough money for their basic food and clothing needs.

A further  4.067 million  earn just enough to stay above the  poverty line but  have difficulties  securing regular food and clothing supplies.

The official poverty line has been criticised for  falling  behind the international standard of US$1  a day, or 2,883 yuan a year.

Mr Liu said the government was planning to set aside 10  per cent of its poverty alleviation fund to train  farmers  so they could take up non-agricultural jobs.

It was hoped  at least one person from each household could shift to the non-agricultural sector in five years. The leading group office had also identified 260  enterprises to help  12  million poor people,  he said.

Li Xiaoyun ,  director of the Humanity and Development Department at China Agricultural University, said China  was now focusing on poor villages instead of counties since not all villages in  poor counties needed help.

'The accuracy of targeting is much higher than in the past.' Professor Li added, however, that even the new approach had failings in the context of the mainland's widening income disparity.

He  said poverty alleviation projects such as microcredit schemes could do little to help people living in absolute poverty because they were usually people who had difficulties  earning a living.

Such projects were only helpful to those living above the poverty line but struggling to meet their  needs.

'For  people living in absolute poverty, they need to be covered by social security programmes. These are usually families with old, sick and disabled members.'

Oxfam Hong Kong communications manager Lum Kwok-choi  said the central government should also increase co-operation with non-government organisations in poverty alleviation.

'The development of the civil society and the people's capacity in tackling their own problems are also important,' he said. 'Oxfam believes that it is very important for China's development to have a more lively NGO sector, which will contribute to poverty alleviation.'



Plan to lift the poorest villages out of poverty