Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged civil affairs authorities to better fulfill their duties by focusing on poverty alleviation, special groups and public concerns.

Xi, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the statement in an instruction read at a national civil affairs conference held in Beijing on April 2.

Identifying civil affairs work as a fundamental aspect of social development, Xi called on Party committees and governments at various levels to be committed to a people-centered approach, strengthen leadership over the civil affairs work and enhance civil affairs services at the primary level.

Civil affairs organs should better perform their duties of ensuring basic livelihood security, strengthening social governance at the primary level, and providing basic social services, to make new contributions to finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and turning China into a modern socialist country, Xi said.