Guangxi's poverty alleviation efforts bear fruit

Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has achieved significant outcomes in its poverty alleviation efforts, with the number of impoverished people having remarkably decreased, said Sun Dawei, deputy Party secretary of Guangxi on Sept 22.

At present, eight impoverished counties, 660 villages, and 240,000 people in Guangxi have all basically met the current standards to be lifted out of poverty. 

Sun noted that Guangxi has reduced its impoverished population by 9.32 million from 2012 to 2019, lifting 1.17 million people out of poverty per year on average. A total of 46 counties have shed their impoverished label in that same time period, while the poverty incidence rate has decreased from 18 percent to 0.6 percent.

The per capita disposable income of rural residents in Guangxi's poverty-stricken areas reached 13,676 yuan ($2,006.05) in 2019, which was 4,209 yuan higher than that in 2015, with an average annual increase of 9.63 percent.

Efforts have been made in improving the basic working and living conditions in poverty-stricken areas, with the region solving the problem of drinking water safety for 1.53 million impoverished people, renovating dilapidated houses for 248,000 impoverished families, as well as constructing 2,564 primary-level medical center projects.

All impoverished people in Guangxi are now able to enjoy basic medical insurance, critical illness insurance, and medical assistance.

A total of 373 villages and 387,700 people in Guangxi's eight border counties have shed their impoverished label from 2016 to 2019, lowering the poverty incidence rate to 0.69 percent.