South China's Guangdong Province plans to alleviate poverty by reducing the number of people earning less than 1,500 yuan (US$191.82) a year by half before 2010.

"That means people earning less than 1,500 yuan a year will comprise no more than 5 per cent of the total population in the province by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10)," Guangdong Deputy Governor Li Ronggen said earlier this week.

The provincial government will invest more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.56 billion) in the rural cities and counties in the next four years till 2010, Li said at a poverty relief work conference in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong.

Apart from helping the poor areas improve their infrastructure and strengthen their economic ties with the prosperous Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, the large sum will be used mainly on education, setting up of social security and pension systems and housing, and to ensure better quality drinking water and provide medical insurance, Li said.

"The provincial government will do what it can to help poor farmers improve their lot."

Guangdong that borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions has made rapid progress in alleviating poverty in recent years, with its rapid economic development playing the most important role.

Concerted efforts has reduced the number of people earning 1,500 yuan (US$191.82) or less a year at the annual rate of 15.8 per cent between 2001 and 2005.

In actual numbers, more than 649,000 people have climbed above the poverty line in the past five years.

Most of the province's poverty-stricken people live in the remote mountainous areas in its western, eastern and northern parts.

The economic development of its mountainous cities and counties still lags far behind its booming coastal areas.

The provincial government had built more than 88,000 economy dwellings for the poor in these mountainous areas by the end November, with 17,000 more to be completed by end of 2007.

Since September 2006, the provincial government has spent 3.1 billion yuan (US$396.42 million) to help rural areas upgrade their educational facilities and offer free education to 9.6 million students.

Also, the government has helped more than 1.8 million farmers in 95 rural counties get sufficient drinking water.

During the past five years, the government has improved its rural medical care system, too. More than 26.18 million farmers, or 61.5 per cent of the total, have been included in the rural medical care system.

The government has funded a number of projects, too, to help rural people climb above the poverty line.

Editor: Yan