Full coverage: China’s Leaders

BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping have urged local authorities to leave no stone unturned in the solid implementation of precision-poverty relief measures to lift the nations's poor out of poverty.

He made the remarks in a congratulatory statement sent to a commendation meeting held on Sunday in Beijing, which honored organizations and individuals for their outstanding poverty alleviation contributions.

Xi called for the combined efforts of officials in poverty-stricken areas and all sectors of society to battle poverty and support the reform and innovation of poverty relief measures.

It is important that role models of poverty-relief work are identified and celebrated, as this will mobilize the whole of society to participate and take further action to combat poverty, the president said.

In his written instruction to the meeting, Premier Li Keqiang noted that local officials should follow the examples set by the honored role models and roll out precision poverty relief measures.

Li urged local authorities to ensure that the nation's poor are helped to shake off poverty with greater determination, more powerful measures and more solid implementation.

Vice Premier Wang Yang, also head of the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at the meeting that the mobilizing mechanism and policy support system for poverty relief should be improved to encourage the full participation of all walks of life to reduce poverty.

More than 600 million Chinese were lifted out of poverty in the past three decades, about 70 percent of the world total. China became the first developing country to meet the millennium development target.

For the coming years, the government has named poverty reduction one of its top priorities, vowing to help the remaining 70 million poor people, who live below the poverty line of 2,300 yuan (343 U.S. dollars) in annual income, shake off poverty and enjoy essential social services by 2020.