China pulls 66 million rural people out of poverty in three years

BEIJING - The number of people living in poverty in rural areas was reduced by 66.63 million from 2012 to 2015, said a government report released on Tuesday.

China formulated the 12th Five-year Plan for Poverty Reduction Village By Village. By 2015, poverty alleviation projects covering 30,000 villages had been implemented, according to the report assessing the implementation of Human Rights Action Plan, which was released by the State Council Information Office.

Total Investment reached 144.569 billion yuan (22 bln U.S. dollars), an average of 4.8 million yuan for each village, it said.

From 2012 to 2015, the increase of residents' per capita disposable income surpassed the growth rate of GDP of the same period. The annual growth rate of the per-capita disposal income of urban residents and per-capita net income of rural residents were 7.5 percent and 9.2 percent respectively, the report said.

During the same period, the State Development and Reform Commission allocated 21 billion yuan from the central budget for relocation of impoverished residents, which brought about an additional more than 200 billion yuan in local government input and various other investments, the report said, adding that about 8 million people in poverty have been relocated.

The central government also allocated 771.7 billion yuan to support affordable housing projects, the report said.

Equal rights to employment have been guaranteed. In 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, 12.66 million, 13.1 million, 13.22 million and 13.12 million new urban jobs were created respectively, according to the report. The registered urban unemployment rate was kept within 4.1 percent, lower than the 5 percent target.

The basic medical insurance coverage has been extended to all citizens, with the rate of participation surpassing 95 percent.

It also underlined that an equal right to education for relocated children of migrant workers has been safeguarded. From 2012 to 2015, the central government allocated 34.6 billion yuan to enable nearly 90 percent of relocated children of migrant workers in cities to obtain government support.