Poverty alleviation work is still an arduous task for 3.9 million people from 20 ethnic minorities who are in extreme poverty, said the State Ethnic Affairs Commission in Beijing.

According to a report recently published by the commission, the 77 impoverished counties, accounting for 11 percent of the country 's all ethnic autonomous counties, have a total population of more than 18 million people. Of these people, more than 16 million live in rural areas.

"In utter destitution, people in these areas are generally in dire need of money, food, clothes, quilts, water and houses," said an official with the commission.

He said that most of these people live in remote mountainous areas, plateaus or desert. These regions are short of resources but have frequent natural disasters due to the extreme ecological environment.

In addition to natural conditions, factors leading to poverty also include the low level of education, sanitation and technological development and long-term inadequate input by the government, said the official.

The commission has worked out a series of measures to help the 77 counties shake off poverty, including reducing and exempting taxes, increasing investment in local infrastructure construction and education, relocating people to richer places with better environment and providing subsidies to ensure the basic living standard.

Meanwhile, the central government has also enhanced input in the poverty alleviation work in ethnic autonomous areas. It has formulated more preferential policies targeting eight autonomous regions and provinces, including Guangxi, Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang and Yunnan.

Last year, the central and local governments invested a total of more than 16 billion yuan (1.9 billion US dollars) to help ethnic minority areas out of poverty.

By the end of 2003, of China's 29 million poor who lacked food and clothes, 45 percent came from ethnic autonomous areas.

The latest statistics show that 2.9 million people were lifted above poverty last year, which meant that about 1 million people of ethnic minorities have shaken off poverty if calculated at a ratio of 45 percent.

Source: Xinhua