China has a population of around 100 million who require poverty relief. This includes 21.48 million people in absolute poverty and 31.5 million with low income, disclosed Wang Zhibao, member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

According to the national standard, people with an annual per capita income of less than 683 yuan are regarded as population in poverty and those with annual per capita income of less than 958 yuan are considered as population with low income.

China has strengthened its efforts in poverty alleviation, by allocating 13.7 billion yuan from the central budget and over 5 billion yuan from the local budgets.

However, China still faces a heavy task of poverty elimination due to geographical, social and historic reasons, said Wang. Some poor areas of China are still weak in infrastructure and social services, some even have no roads or power supply. Great disparity still exists in education, medical treatment, hygiene and cultural facilities in these areas in comparison with developed areas. Some poverty-stricken counties of China are lagging far behind developed areas in economic and social development, especially the key poverty-stricken counties, where the per capita income of farmers is only half of the national average.

Wang Zhibao also stressed the importance of enhancing the work of poverty relief by the following measures: First, identify the strategic approach for poverty alleviation according to each region; second, take comprehensive measures, apart from supporting agricultural production, to help local governments build infrastructure, raise the level of public service, improve and raise the cultural and technical level of local farmers.