CCTV:

We know that the central government has set a time limit to promote poverty relief work in the remaining 52 counties and 1,113 villages this year. The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development has also deployed and arranged this work in 2020. May I ask, Mr. Liu, what is the current progress and actual result of speeding up efforts in lifting poor counties and villages out of poverty? Thank you.

Liu Yongfu:

Thank you. There were 832 poverty-stricken counties in our country. As of April 15, 780 counties have announced that they have been lifted out of poverty. Fifteen out of 22 provinces in the middle and western parts of China have no more poverty-stricken counties, while there are 52 poor counties left in the remaining seven provinces. At the same time, we had 128,000 impoverished villages. At the end of last year, there were 2,707 poor villages. Among these 2,707 impoverished villages, there were 1,113 villages each with more than 1,000 poor people and a poverty incidence rate of more than 10%. A time limit had been set to promote poverty relief work in the 52 counties and 1,113 villages. The plan to urge these efforts onward was issued by the central government at the beginning of the Chinese lunar new year, and we printed and distributed it on the third day of the lunar new year. So far, seven provinces have formulated implementation plans. All counties and villages have also formulated operational plans that detail aspects from what the problems are that must be solved to how to solve them, when to finish them and who will do it - a series of measures that are very practical and specific. In addition, the central and provincial governments have increased investment in these listed counties, and they have invested 30.8 billion yuan in these 52 impoverished counties. Each province has also given preferential poverty relief funding to the more than 1,000 villages.

There has also been an increase in the force of help and support, as we can see that there are fewer and fewer poverty-stricken counties and fewer and fewer impoverished villages. Some counties that have been removed from the poverty list have transferred their forces to these places to provide aid. On April 8 of this year, when some of China's private enterprises knew that there were still more than 1,000 villages being listed as impoverished, 31 companies proposed that each Chinese enterprise could help one poor village. After the proposal was sent out, there was a wide response from private enterprises and social organizations. There are now 833 private enterprises and 228 social organizations that have signed up to participate, and the two sides are negotiating how to cooperate, which has also strengthened efforts. 

The focused acceleration of poverty alleviation efforts has already had some effects. For example, the number of poor laborers from listed counties who left their hometowns to work has reached 102% of last year's total, which is seven percentage points higher than the national number. In the process of exporting laborers, our country established a point-to-point system. Throughout the pandemic, the listed counties have 105,000 people travelling to work. For example, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has relatively more poverty relief work. There are more than 300 villages in Xinjiang, as there are more than 300 villages in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province. In those 300 villages of Xinjiang, all the cadres who came to aid did not return to their hometowns during this year's Spring Festival and instead stayed in the villages to perform poverty alleviation work, helping to ensure that the tasks can be completed this year. Thus, overall progress has been smooth. Thank you.