CRI听力:China shortens list of impoverished counties for first time in over 30 years

A total of 28 counties from 9 provinces in China have been removed from the country's list of impoverished counties over the past year.

The withdrawal was announced at a press conference held by the State Council, or China's cabinet.

This marks the first time that China has shortened its list of impoverished counties in 31 years.

Xia Gengsheng, an anti-poverty official with the State Council, says 26 more counties will soon announce their removal from the list of impoverished counties, after Lankao and Jinggangshan were removed from the list at the beginning of the year.

"After going through a series of assessments and evaluations, Jinggangshan of Jiangxi Province and Lankao of Henan Province have won governmental approval to be removed from the list in February. Recently, 26 other counties in 9 provinces have also been removed from the list after a series of assessments. This marks the first time that a drop in the number of impoverished counties is seen in 31 years."

Since the first group of 331 poorest counties was included on the list in 1986, the number had been on the rise.

At the end of 2016, there were over 800 impoverished county-level regions in China.

It's estimated that around 100 counties will apply to be removed from the list this year.

According to a set of national standards established in April last year, a county in central China can be removed from the list when less than 2% of its population is classified as "impoverished," and that figure is 3% for counties in western China.

Xia Gengsheng says counties that are removed from the list will still be granted favorable policies, subsidies and financial support to ensure stable development in the transition period.

"Reduction in the number of impoverished counties is part of the goal of poverty alleviation. Next, we will continue to make efforts to help those counties that have just been alleviated from poverty."

Official data shows over 700 million people in China have been lifted out of poverty since the launch of the Reform and Opening-up policy in the late 1970s.

By the end of 2016, the number of people living below the country's poverty line of 2,300 yuan in annual income had declined to over 43 million, accounting for about 3 percent of China's population.

China has set a goal of lifting 10 million people out of poverty every year from 2016 and is committed to eradicating poverty entirely among the rural population by 2020.

About 775,000 officials have been sent to impoverished areas for poverty relief work.