Cultural Poverty Alleviation Highlighted

Poverty alleviation is one of the most important tasks of the 13th Five-Year Plan. China’s Minister of Culture, Luo Shugang, proposed four key points on cultural poverty alleviation, the People’s Daily Online reported.

Luo said that the first key point is laying out plans. The Ministry of culture has recently issued a document on cultural poverty alleviation for the 13th Five-Year Plan. In order to achieve precise poverty alleviation, each county will make its own cultural construction plan, with local conditions and features.

The second key point is infrastructure construction. For instance, the facility construction and development of local cultural centers should be given great attention in villages, towns and counties.

Cultural content is the third focus. “The most essential task is to provide those in poverty with colorful and favorable cultural products,” said Luo Shugang. He continued to emphasize the importance of taking advantage of the abundant cultural resources in poverty-stricken areas. In a word, the general public not only creates culture but also enjoy its benefits.

Finally, cultivating local cultural talents and encouraging them to go to poor areas should be considered a vital task. “We now have more than 7,000 registered voluntary organizations with more than one million members. More and more of these cultural volunteers should be encouraged to go to these grassroots and poverty-stricken regions,” said Luo Shugang.