China will try to connect every village with an asphalt or concrete road by 2019, as part of a campaign to reduce rural poverty, Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang said on Dec 4.

China still has 28,000 poverty-stricken villages that lack access to asphalt or concrete roads. They are mostly located in mountainous areas where road construction remains difficult, Yang said at a conference in northwest China's Gansu Province on poverty reduction.

He said transportation would be a "vanguard commander" and lay foundations for the poverty reduction campaign.

China has 70 million rural residents officially classified as poor. It has pledged to lift them out of poverty by 2020.

China has invested heavily to improve transportation in underdeveloped areas, making access easier to 42,000 villages by opening bus services, renovating ports and building bridges over the past five years, according to Yang.