Making Decisive Efforts to Combat Poverty
There have been great achievements in China's socioeconomic development over the 30 years of reform and opening up. The overall living standard of the people has improved significantly, and several hundred million people have been lifted out of poverty, accounting for over 70% of global poverty alleviation during this period.
However, because China is still in the primary stage of socialism and because it is a large country where different areas have different conditions for development, there are still considerable numbers living in poverty, and much remains to be done in poverty alleviation. Using an alleviation standard of an annual net income of RMB 2,300 per capita for farmers, there are still 55.75 million poor people in China's rural areas. This shows that poverty alleviation work has entered the stage of tackling the hardest tasks.
In light of this, China has designated October 17 of each year as "Poverty Alleviation Day". It will step up its efforts and mobilize all sectors from across society to combat poverty. It will promote in-depth anti-poverty development, make continued efforts on poverty alleviation, and help the poor to lift themselves out of poverty as soon as possible. It will steadily work toward ensuring that the poor need not worry about basic necessities, ensure their access to mandatory education, basic health care and housing, and strive to accelerate socioeconomic development in impoverished areas.
打好扶贫攻坚战
改革开放30多年来，中国经济社会发展取得很大成就，人民生活水平总体上发生很大变化，几亿贫困人口脱贫，完成这期间全世界超过70%的减贫任务。但由于中国还处在社会主义初级阶段，由于国家大、各地发展条件不同，中国还有为数不少的困难群众，扶贫开发依然任重道远。按照农民年人均纯收入2300元的扶贫标准，到2015年底，中国农村贫困人口还有5575万人。可见，中国扶贫的工作已经进入“啃硬骨头”阶段。这种背景下，从2014年开始，中国将每年10月17日设立为“扶贫日”。中国将加大投入力度，动员社会各方面力量共同向贫困宣战，深入推进扶贫开发，继续打好扶贫攻坚战，帮助困难群众早日脱贫致富，稳定实现扶贫对象不愁吃、不愁穿，保障其义务教育、基本医疗、住房，努力推动贫困地区经济社会加快发展。