In his speech, the president, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, hailed the nation's achievements in its poverty-relief efforts over the last two decades and summarized China's experiences in the field.

Jiang pointed out that over the last two decades, China has reduced its poor population in rural areas by 220 million, and the proportion of impoverished people to the total rural population decreased from 30.7 percent to about three percent.

He stressed that China's success in poverty relief is an important embodiment of the advantages of the socialist system and proof of the great importance attached by the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China to promoting the development of human rights, especially the rights of subsistence and development.

Such success has also contributed greatly to the sustainable development of the economy, and to the maintenance of ethnic harmony and unity, safety of the border and social stability, Jiang said.

On the other hand, Jiang noted that there are still 30 million people living under the poverty line in rural areas. To bring them out of poverty will be an arduous task.

He stressed that for future poverty relief programs to succeed, China must advance its reforms even further, uphold the spirit of hard work and diligence, explore new means of development that fit local conditions, and mobilize the whole of society in the cause.

China's relatively more developed eastern regions shall continue to give support to the development of the western regions in the form of partnership between them, Jiang said.

He emphasized that in poverty relief programs, priority must be given to minority ethnic areas, border areas and extremely poor areas.

(Xinhua News Agency 09/18/2001)