2015年CRI Xi Pledges Strong Support to Eradicate Poverty in China by 2020（在线收听）

Chinese President Xi Jinping has set himself an ambitious target.

He wants to lift all 70 million people living in less than a dollar a day out of poverty within the next five years.

That is roughly a million people coming out of poverty every month –on average- according to the state council.

President Xi says poverty eradication will be a top priority in China's next five-year plan.

"A well-off society is for all the people in China, no one should be left behind. Over next five years, we will lift all its current 70 million living beneath the poverty line to safety, which is an important step in implementing development agenda after 2015."

New proposals for fighting poverty in China includes setting up free vocational schools, improving rural health services and infrastructure and making providing more financing options for new businesses.

China has made great strides in fighting poverty in the past decades.

The country has managed to lift more than 600 million people above the poverty line, just in the past 15 years.

This accounts for almost 70 percent of those brought out of poverty worldwide in the same period.

China is now taking a front seat in the global drive to get rid of poverty.

President Xi pledged two billion U.S. dollars to the south-south cooperation fund for poverty reduction during his recent visit to the UN.

The Chinese president is urging all nations to work together to eliminate global poverty in the next 15 years.

"Eliminating poverty is a common mission for all human beings. China is dedicated to eliminating its own poverty. In the meantime, it has actively conducted South-South cooperation. (China) has provided aid without any political conditions attached and especially helped the least developed countries to eliminate poverty."

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty falls on Saturday. October 17th has also been designated as China's National Poverty Alleviation Day.

President Xi says that several development initiatives led by China aims to create of a fair and inclusive global economic and financial system that can promote global growth.

"The reason that China proposed to jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as well as the design of Silk Road Fund, is to support developing countries in interconnection construction of infrastructure, support them improve the self-development ability, and better integrate in global supply chain, industry chain, and value chain, to input new energy into the international global poverty alleviation."

The World Bank says one in ten people are still live in extreme poverty. But this is a big improvement compared to 1990, when every third person was in poverty.

For CRI I'm Poornima Weerasekara