China to spend $93 billion to relocate 10 million poor people

BEIJING: China will spend $93 billion in the next five years to relocate about 10 million impoverished people as part of its efforts to eradicate poverty among 70 million people.

The investment at all government levels should match the determination of the central government in fighting poverty, said Su Guoxia, spokesperson of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

In 2016, spending on poverty alleviation by the central and provincial governments will increase by a large margin, Su has been quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency.

Last week, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council released a poverty alleviation instruction.

The document followed a high-profile conference on the issue in Beijing late in November, during which the leadership pledged measures to help lift the country's remaining 70 million poor people out of poverty by 2020

Under the new guidelines, banks are supposed to provide favourable long-term loans for the relocation and the central budget should pay 90 per cent of the interest.

Supported by favourable policies and measures, more than 600 million Chinese have escaped poverty in the past three decades, about 70 per cent of the total global achievement, the Xinhua report said.

At the end of last year, 70 million people in the countryside lived below China's poverty line of 2,300 yuan in annual income by 2010 price standards.