Tibet vows to lift 690,000 from poverty by 2020

The government of the Tibet Autonomous Region said it will lift 690,000 people out of poverty by 2020, an ambitious plan that aims to end poverty in the region.

According to the Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday, the Tibet government will reduce the poverty rate to less than 5 percent and increase the disposable income for people living below the poverty line by 16 percent during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

China considers people who earn less than 2,300 yuan ($350) a year as living below the poverty line.

According to Gou Ling, Party chief of Tibet's poverty relief office, 74.4 percent of Tibet's population who struggles with poverty live in Xigaze, Qamdo and Nagqu prefectures. Gou said the government plans to increase investment, infrastructure and employment in the three prefectures.

In the first half of the year, Tibet's GDP was 41.9 billion yuan, the lowest among all 31 provincial-level regions.

• Authorities promised they would do more to reduce poverty, including relocating more people from impoverished regions with no sustainable conditions.

Tibet's poverty rate was reduced to 32.9 percent by the end of 2015 from 49.6 percent in 2010.
  globaltimes.cn
  27/1/16