国内英语资讯:China Focus: Winning the last battle against poverty_时事

国内英语资讯:China Focus: Winning the last battle against poverty

BEIJING, Aug. 23 -- China recently released a guideline on winning the battle against poverty in the next three years to prepare the nation for eradicating poverty by 2020.

According to the guideline, the poor population should be guaranteed food and clothing and children from poor families should be guaranteed a nine-year compulsory education. Basic medical needs and living conditions of the poor population should also be guaranteed.

People whose annual income is lower than 2,300 yuan (about 336.1 U.S. dollars) are defined as living below the poverty line in China.

Over the past five years, over 68 million people were lifted out of poverty. Another 30 million are set to be lifted in less than three years time.

However, as the work becomes harder towards the end, what exactly will the country do to achieve its goal?

AN ARDUOUS TASK

Fostering distinctive industries will continue to be emphasized.

"To become a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, our biggest area of weakness lies in rural areas, especially the poor people in rural areas," Han Jun, deputy director of the office of the central agricultural work leading group, said at a press conference.

In southwest China's Zhexiang Township, Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Qianxinan, Guizhou Province, an area in deep poverty, a tourism park featuring distinctive Bouyei cloth making studios was established amid the local government's drive to develop the ethnic cultural industry together with rural tourism.