Tech giant Alibaba group have made plans to spend $1.51 billion on poverty alleviation in the next five years.
Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba, announced at a conference at the company headquarters in Hangzhou that the tech giant would set up the Alibaba Poverty Relief Fund, with the money to be donated over the next five years.
China has already lifted more than 500 million people out of poverty after three decades of economic reforms by President Xi Jinping. He has made it a policy priority to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020. Poverty in China is defined as having an annual income below US $450, reported the South China Morning Post.
“We’ve decided to make our contribution to achieving the goal of wiping out poverty,” Ma said whose commitment to poverty relief was inspired by late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, chief architect of the nation’s reform and opening-up.
“Without Deng Xiaoping, there would be no us,” Ma said. “He called on the people who become rich earlier to help others who are still poor. Now that we are rich today, we should fulfil this commitment and help more people get rich.”
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