More than 100,000 Chinese companies help alleviate poverty

A total of 109,500 privately-owned enterprises had joined in a poverty alleviation program targeting poverty-stricken villages in China by June, said a senior official with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) on Saturday.

These private businesses have helped 127,100 villages, including 68,900 registered poverty-stricken villages, Fan Youshan, ACFIC vice chairman, told a forum held in Danzhai County in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

The program was launched in October 2015 by ACFIC, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, and the China Society for Promotion of the Guangcai Program.

These private firms have made nearly 91.6 billion yuan (about 13.4 billion U.S. dollars) of industrial investments in these poverty-stricken areas over the past years, with an additional 15.2 billion yuan for public welfare projects.

The firms have helped create 799,000 jobs and trained 1.16 million people, benefiting a registered poverty-stricken population of 15.64 million.

The ACFIC will guide the private businesses to earmark more new resources for more than 1,100 villages that are yet to be lifted out of poverty to help win the country's battle against poverty.