CHINA TO BANISH GHOST OF POVERTY

Ahead of Lunar New Year, China's Xi says will banish 'ghost' of poverty.

BEIJING : China will banish the  'ghosts of poverty'', Chinese President Xi Jinping told villagers in a poor southwestern part of the country, during a traditional visit to outlying regions before the Lunar New Year.

Chinese leaders generally use the time around the festival to make inspection trips around the country where they flag important policy initiatives or areas of concern for the year ahead.

President Xi has made poverty alleviation one of the signature policy issues after pledging in 2015 that China would lift the 70 million people living under the poverty level at the time out of poverty by 2020.

Visiting a remote mountainous part of Sichuan province to meet ethnic Yi people who live there, Xi was told by one villager that she used to believe ghosts were the cause of illness, state media reported on Monday.

After hearing her story, Xi told her they would exorcise the ghosts, reports said. ''In the past we did have ghosts  - the ghosts of ignorance, backwardness and poverty,'' Xi told her.

''If we can resolve these problems then the ghosts will vanish. if there is culture, knowledge and hygiene, then our prosperous lives resolve those difficulties and then how can there be any ghosts,'' President Xi added.

The Yi, who speak a language distantly related to Burmese and have their own unique script, are one of china's 55 officially recognised minority peoples.

The official Xinhua news agency and state television showed pictures of Xi inspecting dried meats, chatting with villagers wearing colorful traditional costumes and and being shown housing improvement projects.

[Agencies]