The number of people living in poverty in east China's Fujian province decreased from 2.42 million in 1985 to 124,000 in 2000, and the poverty population rate in rural areas has decreased from 10 percent to 0.47 percent, according to latest statistics.
The provincial government has put poverty relief work high on the agenda. Seventeen counties formerly categorized as in poverty have registered an average increase of 20 times in their gross products for the past 10 years, and the per capita net income in rural areas has increased by nearly ten times.
Villages in those counties have all installed telephones, radio and TV facilities. More than 99 percent of children of schooling age are receiving adequate education.
(People's Daily09/11/2001)
