Over 60 million people lifted out of poverty in past five years: Xi

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has pledged to win the battle against poverty, according to a report delivered by Xi Jinping to the 19th CPC National Congress on Wednesday.

"Seeing that poor people and poor areas will enter the moderately prosperous society together with the rest of the country is a solemn promise made by our Party," Xi told more than 2,300 delegates from all walks of life at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

"We should mobilize the energies of our whole Party, our whole country, and our whole society, and continue to implement targeted poverty reduction and alleviation measures," Xi said.

[File photo: VCG]

More than 60 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the past five years, with the poverty headcount ratio dropping from 10.2 to less than 4 percent, he said.

This is the "decisive progress" in China's fight against poverty, Xi said.

Poverty relief is high on China's agenda, and the country has vowed to lift everybody out of poverty by 2020. Since the start of the reform and opening up, China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty.

The Party will strengthen the system for making heads of Party committees and governments at each level assume the overall responsibility for poverty alleviation, Xi said.

Particular attention will be paid to helping people increase confidence in their own ability to lift themselves out of poverty and see that they can access the education they need to do so, he said.

"We must ensure that by the year 2020, all rural residents living below the current poverty line will have been out of poverty, and poverty is eliminated in all poor counties and regions. Poverty alleviation should reach those who truly need it and deliver genuine outcomes," he said.