Shaanxi governor lays out poverty fighting plan

Northwest China's Shaanxi province plans to lift 885,000 people out of poverty this year, according to the chief provincial official.

Hu Heping, governor of Shaanxi, laid out the plan in a work report that was submitted to the deputies of the sixth session of the 12th Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress, which opened on Sunday in Xi'an, the provincial capital.

It said the government would work to help a further 13 poverty-stricken counties this year.

By the end of last year, Shaanxi had 48 impoverished counties with 1.58 million people living on less than the national rural poverty standard of 2,300 yuan ($330) per year.

The governor said in his work report that a number of measures would be implemented to fulfill the poverty-fighting target, including the building of 213,000 houses for the resettlement of impoverished farmers and the promotion of industries that could provide jobs.

Hu said that last year, about 1.3 million people and two counties had been lifted out of poverty in Shaanxi. Between 2014 and the end of December, the number of poverty-stricken people in the province decreased from 3.5 million to 1.58 million.