Making Decisive Efforts to Combat Poverty 

There have been great achievements in China's socioeconomic development over the 30 years of reform and opening up. The overall living standard of the people has improved significantly, and several hundred million people have been lifted out of poverty, accounting for over 70% of global poverty alleviation during this period. 

However, because China is still in the primary stage of socialism and because it is a large country where different areas have different conditions for development, there are still considerable numbers living in poverty, and much remains to be done in poverty alleviation. Using an alleviation standard of an annual net income of RMB 2,300 per capita for farmers, there are still 55.75 million poor people in China's rural areas. This shows that poverty alleviation work has entered the stage of tackling the hardest tasks. 

In light of this, China has designated October 17 of each year as "Poverty Alleviation Day". It will step up its efforts and mobilize all sectors from across society to combat poverty. It will promote in-depth anti-poverty development, make continued efforts on poverty alleviation, and help the poor to lift themselves out of poverty as soon as possible. It will steadily work toward ensuring that the poor need not worry about basic necessities, ensure their access to mandatory education, basic health care and housing, and strive to accelerate socioeconomic development in impoverished areas.

打好扶貧攻堅戰

改革開放30多年來，中國經濟社會發展取得很大成就，人民生活水平總體上發生很大變化，幾億貧困人口脫貧，完成這期間全世界超過70%的減貧任務。但由于中國還處在社會主義初級階段，由于國家大、各地發展條件不同，中國還有為數不少的困難群眾，扶貧開發依然任重道遠。按照農民年人均純收入2300元的扶貧標準，到2015年底，中國農村貧困人口還有5575萬人。可見，中國扶貧的工作已經進入“啃硬骨頭”階段。這種背景下，從2014年開始，中國將每年10月17日設立為“扶貧日”。中國將加大投入力度，動員社會各方面力量共同向貧困宣戰，深入推進扶貧開發，繼續打好扶貧攻堅戰，幫助困難群眾早日脫貧致富，穩定實現扶貧對象不愁吃、不愁穿，保障其義務教育、基本醫療、住房，努力推動貧困地區經濟社會加快發展。