According to sources attending a symposium on the sustained development of China's poorer areas it's expected that a special fund will be established to help with poverty reduction.

The poverty reduction fund was proposed by the China Association for Poverty Alleviation and Development but there's no timetable as yet on when it'll be launched, said the association's vice president Tian Ruizhang.

Tian said their application had been submitted to the government and was being reviewed.

"China has achieved a great deal in poverty reduction but the biggest obstacle in this endeavor is a lack of funds," he told the Tianjin symposium.?

From central funds between 2001 and 2005 arrangements were made for 57.2 billion yuan (US$7.15 billion) of poverty relief funding to be made available with an annual increase of 6.45 percent.

"This is not sufficient for the huge poverty-stricken population which stood at 23.65 million in rural areas at the end of last year," Tian told Xinhua in an exclusive interview Sunday.

Nor was there enough funding from China's financial institutions, he said. "None of the four big state-owned commercial banks has a branch in the needy areas."

A fund for poverty reduction purposes would be an effective way to channel money for the benefit of poorer regions and attract investors as such funding was expected to yield a reasonable return, said Tian.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2006)