Guiyang hosts meeting on internet-based poverty alleviation efforts

A national promotional meeting on alleviating poverty through the internet and digital village development was held in Guiyang, the capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, on Oct 24.

At the meeting, 38 companies and social organizations signed agreements for 77 assistance projects with 42 counties that haven't shaken off poverty, including nine counties in Guizhou.

The projects involve alleviating poverty through employment opportunities and using e-commerce, the internet, network coverage, information technology and tourism.

Since 2016, China has leaned heavily on the internet to implemented poverty alleviation measures and achieved significant progress. E-commerce platforms are now utilized in all of the country's 832 poverty-stricken counties, helping online retail sales in rural areas to increase nationally from 180 billion yuan ($26.81 billion) in 2014 to 1.7 trillion yuan in 2019.

The percentage of primary and secondary schools connected to the internet increased from 79.2 percent in December 2016 to 98.7 percent in August 2020. Meanwhile, all of the county-level hospitals in State-level impoverished counties are now covered with remote medical services.

By June 2019, 99.2 percent of administrative villages were covered with basic financial services. And by August 2020, China had established 424,000 stations to provide information technology training for farmers.