BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Thursday marks the sixth National Poverty Relief Day and the 27th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, both of which fall on Oct. 17 every year.
China has long been dedicated to eradicating poverty, contributing to more than 70 percent of the same cause globally, and is poised to deliver on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of no poverty by 2030, 10 years ahead of schedule.
The following facts and figures attest to the strides China has made as well as recipes for such achievements in the past 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949:
-- China slashed the rural population living under poverty from 770 million at the dawn of the reform and opening-up to 1.66 million by the end of 2018. The six years between 2013 to 2018 saw more than 80 million people lifted out of poverty.
-- Around 95 percent of China's poor population will shake off poverty, and over 90 percent of poor counties will be taken off the poverty list by the end of this year, with absolute poverty set to be wiped out by 2020.
-- For rural residents in areas under the poverty line, per capita disposable income in the first half of 2019 grew 8.4 percent year on year in inflation-adjusted terms, 1.8 percentage points higher than that for rural population nationwide.
-- China's poverty relief has a lasting effect on its people, with cases of relapse down to within 100,000 from around 600,000 in 2016, and newly reported cases of poverty down to within 100,000 from 1 million.
-- China has been pushing ahead with targeted poverty relief, which entails identifying and setting up files for every single household in poverty to form a nationwide database that enables the government to devise individual poverty relief plans and trace results.
-- The country has mobilized resources from both the public and private sectors in developing diversified fronts of poverty relief work, including through industrial development, employment, education, relocation, financial services and the digital economy.
-- Industrial development is one of China's most powerful tools in alleviating poverty. More than 100,000 industrial bases in areas under the poverty line have been established and went on to cover 92 percent of the households in poverty. About 70 percent of the total population lifted out of poverty was the result of industrial development.
-- Skills training programs for those in poverty have covered more than 300,000 people, who will use the skills to benefit more.
-- Entrepreneurship is supported in poor areas by three-year micro-credit loans that require no collateral. So far, the government has issued more than 580 billion yuan of such loans to about half of the households under the poverty line.
