Rising out of poverty(3)

Data from the office also show that 128,000 villages in 832 key counties including those located in extremely poor contiguous regions remain poverty-stricken.

Poor people are not only poorly paid, but also beset by unavailability of water, roads, electricity, schooling, healthcare and lack of access to higher incomes or loans.

Zheng admitted that there are difficulties in solving these problems as poor populations are concentrated in extremely poor contiguous regions with substandard living conditions and inadequate infrastructure in addition to vulnerability to natural disasters.

Li Shi, a professor of economics at Beijing Normal University, said that he is not surprised by the number of those classified as impoverished as China has a huge population compared to other countries, so it is understandable that it has a relatively high population living below the poverty line.

The poverty alleviation authority also vowed in October last year to reform a program assisting counties designated as national-level poverty-stricken counties after widespread public complaints over some of these counties' misuse of poverty alleviation funds and their reluctance to exit the program.

In December 2013, the National Audit Office reported that some funds set aside for underdeveloped regions had been misused based on an audit carried out across 19 targeted counties in six provincial-level regions of Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia in April and May of that year. It audited funds appropriated to these counties from 2010 to 2012.

During the three-year period, 3.92 billion yuan ($643 million) was injected into the 19 counties with the audit checking 32 percent of it, or 1.24 billion yuan ($203 million).

The audit found that 326 million yuan ($53 million) had been misused through false declaration, embezzlement and officials' wasting on expensive gifts, banquets and tours. The results led to a total of 137 individuals being investigated.

Meanwhile, many counties took a short-sighted approach, using the fund by simply giving money to the poor instead of taking more diverse and efficient supportive measures, said Liu Zhongcheng, head of the poverty relief office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Eliminating poverty is not simply about giving money to the poor. The more sustainable approach is to work with them to help lift themselves out of poverty and thrive through technological, policy support and other measures, said Wang Binbin, a project manager of the climate change and poverty project with Oxfam, a worldwide development organization focusing on poverty alleviation.

In fact, the special funds for poverty relief should have been split into three parts, with 60 percent earmarked for developing industries and special agricultural items, 30 percent for infrastructure construction and 10 percent for the training of impoverished locals.

Su Guoxia, another official with LGOPAD, said that the authorities will take three steps to tackle the problem. This will include cancellation or reduction of the proportion of GDP in the assessment of poverty-stricken counties, establishing a restraint mechanism to prohibit counties from unnecessary infrastructure projects and establishing an exit mechanism for poor counties with incentives.

Meanwhile, a nationwide campaign to gather detailed information on the poor has been launched, including information on the causes and level of poverty, so the government can offer specific support, she added.

Du Xiaoshan, Deputy Director of the CASS's Rural Development Institute, said that the strategies suggested should be an effective way to tackle poverty as different development zones have different problems and needs.

"In counties that have severe ecological or environmental problems, the GDP should not be assessed. The assessment should focus on the recovery of its ecology and environment, such as air and water quality. These places should be assessed more on the stability of people's livelihoods, such as employment levels. These strategies will allow officials to concentrate more on improving people's living standards rather than blindly constructing roads and shopping malls," he said.