BEIJING — Vice-Premier Wang Yang called for more financial support for poverty reduction on March 29.

At a symposium on poverty relief, Wang encouraged all kinds of financial institutions to better fund poverty alleviation.

He asked banks to give more credit to industrial development, infrastructure construction in impoverished areas and the relocation of the rural poor.

Wang also called on state-owned and private enterprises to set up investment funds to finance the development of poverty-stricken regions.

“We should work to increase the accuracy and effects of financial support for poverty reduction,” said the vice-premier.

At the end of 2014, China had 70 million people in the countryside living below the nation’s poverty line of 2,300 yuan (about $354) in annual income.

China aims to eliminate poverty by 2020 when its 13th Five-Year Plan is completed.