More poverty relief efforts needed: Official

More efforts are needed to fight bureaucracy and data fraud in poverty relief work, as China works to end absolute poverty in about seven months, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Guo Weimin, spokesman for the third plenary session of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, said at a news conference in Beijing that more work also needs to be done to prevent farmers who recently escaped poverty from sliding back into economic woe and deal with the new challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

China has made unprecedented achievements in reducing rural poverty, but the task remains arduous ahead, he said.

Political advisors have been actively involved in the battle against absolute poverty and their efforts have achieved some good results, Guo said.

CPPCC has conducted surveys in 17 provincial regions with a focus on assessing whether relief approaches were tailored to local circumstances, he said.

They've also held high-level conferences to discuss relief work each year starting 2016, he added.

Political advisors have made many valuable suggestions, including one on building a warning system for farmers susceptible to poverty, according to Guo.

This year, a conference will be held to discuss how to win the anti-poverty battle with quality results and to establish a long-term mechanism to end relative poverty, he added.