China to spend $93b relocating 10 million people

BEIJING - China will spend 600 billion yuan (about $93 billion) in the next five years to relocate about 10 million impoverished people, an official said on Tuesday.

The investment at all government levels should match the determination of the central government in fighting poverty, Su Guoxia, spokesperson of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at a press conference.

In 2016, spending on poverty alleviation by the central and provincial governments will increase by a large margin, Su added.

Last week, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council released a poverty alleviation instruction.

The document followed a high-profile conference on the issue in Beijing late in November, during which the leadership pledged measures to help lift the country's remaining 70 million poor people out of poverty by 2020.

The policy guideline calls for creative ideas and methods to address poverty and accelerating the relocation of poor people living in tough circumstances with fragile ecosystems or prone to natural disasters.

Policy banks are supposed to provide favorable long-term loans for the relocation and the central budget should pay 90 percent of the interest, according to the document.

Supported by favorable policies and measures, more than 600 million Chinese have escaped poverty in the past three decades, about 70 percent of the total global achievement.

At the end of last year, 70 million people in the countryside lived below China's poverty line of 2,300 yuan in annual income by 2010 price standards.