75,000 disabled escape poverty in Gansu since 2014

LANZHOU - A total of 75,000 disabled people have been lifted out of poverty in northwest China's Gansu Province since 2014, local authorities said Friday.

The provincial disabled person's federation said that 183,000 people in the province had been registered in a database of the impoverished disabled as of the end of 2014.

There remain more than 100,000 impoverished disabled people in Gansu.

The province has invested around 1.3 billion yuan (192 million US dollars) in poverty alleviation for the impoverished disabled.

"Since traffic is one of the elements hindering poverty alleviation among impoverished disabled people in the mountainous province, the local government has increased efforts to develop e-commerce for them," the federation said.

More than 1,200 online stores have received support over the past five years, with the annual sales volume reaching over 600 million yuan.

E-commerce has helped 7,300 impoverished disabled people find jobs and escape poverty during the period.

"Local agricultural products can be sold for good prices online. This approach is very popular with young people," said Zhang Wei, a disabled man, adding that he could earn more than 30,000 yuan a year as a graphic designer for online stores.

"Around 254,000 disabled people have found jobs after receiving training in the past five years, while the employment rate of the province increased from 60 percent in 2015 to 80 percent currently," said Hua Wenzhe, an official with the federation.