9.2 bln yuan invested on poverty relief in Tibet during 12th Five Year Plan
During the "12th Five-Year Plan", the Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund reached its highest level in history, with total special poverty relief investments reaching 9.19 billion yuan, 6.56 billion more than the "11th Five-Year Plan", a 2.49-fold increase.
Within that amount, the central government’s poverty alleviation fund was 6.94 billion yuan and the Tibet Autonomous Region government invested 1.7 billion yuan. Prefecture- (municipal) and county-level public finances also added their own investments, reaching a combined invested of 540 million yuan into poverty relief.
Through the implementation of the whole-county push, from work aid, to family poverty relief, industry poverty relief, enriching the borders, Tibet has achieved remarkable results in reducing poverty. From 2011 to 2015, the population of those living in poverty in Tibet declined by 580,000 people.
Sun Jinling, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Region Department of Finance said that the highland regions of Tibet and minority and border regions form a contiguous area of poverty, making poverty alleviation efforts difficult. Simply relying on poverty alleviation and development funds to complete the goal of achieving a comprehensive middle class along with the rest of the country is unrealistic, and they need to adopt other innovative approaches, using the efforts of the whole society, in order to alleviate poverty for the many farmers and herdsmen across Tibet.