NPC deputies share insights on poverty alleviation

BEIJING - Deputies to the National People's Congress Thursday shared their experiences on poverty alleviation at a press conference held on the sidelines of the ongoing session.

Zhao Huijie, Party Secretary of Xiaomiaozi village of Chifeng city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, said the village was striving to inspire people to live a happy life.

"We taught a family to raise organic pigs and geese and now not only have they been lifted out of poverty but their ambition has been totally inspired," Zhao said.

The annual income per capita of his village was raised from 3,000 yuan (about $475) in 2009 to 13,000 last year.

Li Jun, Party Secretary of Xiuyun village in Southwest China's Sichuan province, said his village had started a new poverty alleviation plan to give the impoverished more esteem.

"We have paired more than 5,000 city households with people who are living below the poverty line. Instead of pure donation, the donors buy agricultural produce from the poverty-stricken families," Li said.

China plans to lift at least 10 million people out of poverty this year, according to the annual government work report made by Premier Li Keqiang. The country will put more effort into developing local industry, education and healthcare, according to the report.

There were around 30 million Chinese living below the national poverty line at the end of last year.

"The challenges lie in illness," said Xiang Changjiang, director of the village committee of Xiangjia village of Longhui county, Central China's Hunan province. "Many people were thrown back to poverty due to illness."

He suggested that government make policies to support people living in the rural areas who have serious illness, improve the health care system and increase the medical reimbursement ratio.

"The work gets harder towards the end, but we have confidence," said Cao Qinghua, Party Secretary of Lianzhu township of Puer city, Southwest China's Yunnan province.