Beijing: China will stay on track to wipe out domestic poverty in 2020, even after economic repercussions triggered by the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak fueled concerns that the deadline could be missed, a senior official in charge of poverty alleviation said on Thursday.
Liu Yongfu, head of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said the victory over absolute poverty is already on the horizon. A good indicator is that the number of rural poor one of two indexes that authorities have been using to track progress plummeted to about 5.51 million by the end of last year. The number stood at 98.99 million in late 2012, when nationwide poverty relief gained momentum, he said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing.
In order to escape the label of being poverty-stricken, a person has to rise above the national poverty line defined as an annual per capita income of 2,300 yuan set in 2010 and adjusted annually for inflation before fulfilling other criteria such as access to schooling, healthcare, safe housing and clean drinking water, according to official documents.
Liu said the actual poverty line had reached over 3,000 yuan ($427) last year and would exceed 4,000 yuan this year. Another index, the number of “impoverished counties”, dropped from 832 to 52 over the same period, he added.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
