Related story: Poverty eradication program benefits farmers

    TIANJIN, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government must explore ways to ensure sustainable development when striving to reduce poverty in poor regions, said participants to a forum held here Saturday.

    Abdul'ahat Abdulrixit, vice-chairman of the National Committeeof the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said many areas were still very poor due to large regional and urban-rural development gaps.

    Many poor regions sacrificed the environment for economic growth, he told the first forum on sustainable development of poor Chinese regions.

    Pi Qiansheng, head of the Binhai New Area (BNA), or the new coastal area in Tianjin, said the developed eastern coastal areas should support underdeveloped regions in labor transfer, industrial restructuring and personnel exchanges to achieve sustainable development.

    "It is incumbent on eastern regions to support central and western regions in the drive for common prosperity," he said.

    BNA and Guanghua Management School of Beijing University, one of China's top business schools, are jointly training officials from the southwestern Guizhou Province in human resource management, land planning and development, trade and exports, logistics and technological innovation.

    Poor regions such as the northwestern Gansu Province are studying ways to reduce poverty in line with local conditions.

    In Gansu's Dingxi region, farmers are encouraged by the government to develop traditional Chinese medicine and flower industries, instead of relying solely on rice. Enditem