Xinjiang Party chief to intensify poverty-relief

URUMQI -- Chen Quanguo, Communist Party chief of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, pledged to improve living conditions for the people and win the battle against poverty.

Chen, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee of Xinjiang, vowed to increase spending in the next five years at the on-going regional Party congress.

Seventy percent of fiscal spending and funds will be used to improve quality of life, including housing, infrastructure, education and medical services.

From 2016 to 2020, new houses will be built for over 1.4 million households in rural Xinjiang and living conditions for low-income groups in urban areas will be improved, he said.

The government will extend free education to more children, particularly in southern and poorer parts of Xinjiang. "Children of all ethnicities shall attend school, and the quality of education shall improve," Chen said.

The region will build more vocational schools and more teenagers from poor families will attend vocational schools for free, he said.

More than 2.2 million jobs will be created in urban parts by 2020, Chen said, and at least one person from every family shall have a job.

From 2011 to 2015, 1.74 million people were raised above the poverty line in Xinjiang.

About 2.61 million residents -- less than 10 percent of the region's population -- live in poverty. These people will be lifted out of poverty by 2020, Chen said.