CHINA could tailor its financial regulations to help boost poorer regions, as part of efforts to raise 70 million people out of poverty, a central bank official said.

    The government could use differing reserve requirement ratios, re-lending, re-discount and differing regulations, to encourage financial institutions to increase support for poor areas, Pan Gongsheng, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, said.

    Pan’s remarks, which were made Friday at a poverty reduction forum jointly held by the central bank and the State Council, were carried in a statement published by the central bank Sunday.

    Internet finance, industry investment funds, venture capital and private equity should also be directed towards poverty elimination efforts, Pan said.

    President Xi Jinping told the forum that the government wants to lift the country’s 70 million people out of poverty by 2020, according to domestic television. That averages a rate of a million people a month.

    “To build a moderately prosperous society in an all-around way is the goal of all Chinese people. None of them can be left behind,” Xi said.

    Those earning less than 2,300 yuan (US$362) annually fall below the poverty line in China, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.(SD-Agencies)