Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has called for greater achievements in helping the Disabled in their rehabilitation, education, employment, social security and access to public facilities.

 

Over the next five years, special efforts should be made to relieve disabled people from poverty, especially those living in rural areas, Hui said Friday at a plenary meeting of the State Council committee in charge of affairs related to the disabled.

 

Hui is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

 

In his speech, Hui recalled the achievements China made in the development of handicapped people's undertakings in the past five years. But it has been a long-term and tough job for the country to develop the undertakings of disabled people, he noted.

 

According to official estimates, China has over 60 million people with disabilities, or five percent of the country's 1.3 billion people.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2006)