China's annual government spending in poverty reduction programs had grown 11.9 percent on average from 2001 to 2010, according to a white paper released Wednesday by State Council Information Office.

Central and local governments have been constantly adjusting structures of financial expenditure and gradually increasing the financial input into poverty reduction programs, according to the white paper titled New Progress in Development-Oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Rural China.

The financial input increased from 12.75 billion yuan in 2001 to 34.93 billion yuan in 2010, representing an average annual growth rate of 11.9 percent, and the total input during the past ten years reached 204.38 billion yuan, the document said.

The Chinese government aimed its poverty reduction programs at all people whose income is below the poverty line, but put priority on old revolutionary bases in the central and western regions, areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, border areas and destitute areas.

The central and local governments formulated special programs, appropriated special funds to improve infrastructure, improved social services and enhanced the people's quality in these areas.

Since 2004, the central government has appropriated a total of 3 billion yuan in poverty reduction funds for the Dew Program, which focuses on training labor force from poor rural families in technical skills and practical agricultural techniques so that they can find better-paying jobs.

By the end of last year, more than four million people from poor rural families had received such training, and 80 percent of them found jobs outside agriculture.

China has also worked to relocate impoverished people from areas with harsh living conditions or areas lack of natural resource. By 2010, the government had relocated 7.7 million people, effectively improving their housing, communications, power supply and other living conditions.