TAIYUAN — Vice-Premier Wang Yang called for steady progress in poverty reduction through relocating people from inhospitable areas on May 8.

Local governments should step up the construction of relocation projects and provide support for those people, Wang said at a meeting.

The country should ensure that it can “move them out, settle them down and gradually lead them to prosperity,” Wang said.

Local authorities should deal with problems during relocation, including unreasonable choices of construction sites, substandard project fund management and failure to implement policies, according to Wang.

Helping people out of poverty should always be the target of the relocation, and local governments must steer away from more emphasis on relocation than on poverty relief, he added.

There were still 43 million people in rural areas living in poverty at the end of 2016. China aims to help all of them out of poverty by 2020.

This year, China plans to reduce poor population by over 10 million, including 3.4 million through relocation.