South China's Guangxi shakes off absolute poverty

South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, home to the country's largest ethnic minority population, has lifted all its 54 poverty-stricken counties out of poverty.

The last eight impoverished counties in the region, including six ethnic minority autonomous counties, have eliminated absolute poverty, the regional government announced on Friday.

Since 2016, nearly 73 billion yuan (11.11 billion U.S. dollars) have been allocated to poverty alleviation projects across the region, covering fields of infrastructure, employment, education, and medical and healthcare services.

Guangxi, as one of the areas in China facing the worst stony desertification, has poured over 48 billion yuan in upgrading roads in rural areas since 2016, according to the regional department of transportation.

Villagers in stony deserts have also benefited from relocation projects to shake off poverty. In the past five years, Guangxi has relocated around 710,000 people from remote and uninhabitable mountainous areas to the central regions of counties and cities.

With over 20 million people of various ethnic minority groups out of the total population of 50 million people, Guangxi's anti-poverty achievement has brought the country one step closer to the goal of ending poverty by the end of 2020.