Efforts on to sustain win over poverty

A clerk of Guilin Bank shares information on financial inclusion policies with farmers at a village in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. [Photo by Peng Huan/For China Daily] 

China will ensure adequate fiscal funds and sustain supportive measures to boost poverty alleviation achievements in the country before moving onto rural revitalization goals, senior officials said on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Finance and other relevant government departments are jointly assessing the existing policies, and more fiscal and tax measures will be launched to consolidate the achievements and prevent people from slipping back into poverty, said Deputy Finance Minister Cheng Lihua.

Special fiscal and tax policies have been introduced to increase investment in infrastructure construction, reduce the tax burden of companies, especially in the agriculture sector, and promote employment in poor areas, officials said during a news conference in Beijing.

"These measures have optimized the social and economic environment in impoverished areas, and promoted the endogenous power of development," said Wang Daoshu, chief economist of the State Taxation Administration.

China has entered the final stretch of its poverty relief campaign. After delisting all of the 832 poverty-stricken counties, the government will conduct inspections and assessments to ensure the standardization of the delisting process, the accuracy of the criteria and the authenticity of the achievement, said a report from the Xinhua News Agency.

From 2016 onward, the central government has increased the 20 billion yuan ($3.05 billion) quota of special funds to support poverty alleviation every year, and total funds for the same have now reached 146.1 billion yuan, according to data released by the Ministry of Finance.

Supported by some fiscal measures, including loan subsidies and risk compensation, financial institutions have issued small loans totaling more than 600 billion yuan, to lift people out of poverty, according to official data.

The Finance Ministry has also innovated several measures to make use of fiscal funds effectively for some targeted projects. For instance, the funds for agriculture, photovoltaic, hydropower, and rural tourism projects could be used to generate income.

"The model turns the voluntary fiscal subsidies into investments that can earn profits, and a larger group of people can benefit from the government's fiscal policy. Enterprises and cooperatives are the entities that will launch the projects, which will help in the development of industries with local advantages and combine fiscal funds with technology and operational capacity," said Wu Qixiu, director of the agricultural and rural department of the Ministry of Finance.

Another important policy will be the pooling of fiscal resources under unified plans. From 2016 to the end of September this year, the 832 poverty-stricken counties have streamlined more than 1.5 trillion yuan of funds, prioritizing and concentrating on the task of poverty alleviation, officials said.