That President Xi Jinping delivered a speech on poverty alleviation work in impoverished areas on June 23 indicates eradicating abject poverty has become the main task of China's poverty alleviation work. China is set to meet its target of reducing the poverty-stricken population to 30 million by the end of this year.

Although the impoverished population is relatively small, most of the impoverished people live in abject poverty, which has made poverty alleviation work much more difficult.

For rural areas caught in abject poverty, green poverty reduction could be of great significance, because such areas are ecologically vulnerable, that is, they cannot play host to industries than cause heavy pollution.

So poverty alleviation officials should take advantage of the local ecological and natural resources of such areas to develop special industries, for which higher authorities should provide adequate support. For instance, Qinghai province has created more than 40,000 ecological public welfare posts, mainly in the southern part of the province, for impoverished people, in order to help them increase their households' income by 20,000 yuan ($3,069) a year.

Some rural areas suffering from abject poverty have unique natural landscapes and products, but cannot use them to increase their incomes because of the lack of transportation and telecom facilities. Therefore, the authorities should improve the local infrastructure to promote green economy, but the local authorities should ensure the local resources are used in a sustainable manner.