Beijing, Nov 28 (IANS): China will spend $13 billion in 2019 to lift more people out of poverty.

The world's most populous nation has already lifted over than 500 million people out of poverty. Beijing has vowed to completely eliminate poverty in rural areas by 2020.

The poverty alleviation fund already allocated for the next year to 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities totalled 90.98 billion yuan ($13 billion), the Chinese Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

Some 12 billion yuan of the fund will be used to support areas in deep poverty, including Tibet, Xinjiang and parts of Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu provinces.

The Ministry also delegated its power to review and approve the use of poverty alleviation funds to county governments, stressing funds should not be used for any projects or tasks unrelated to poverty reduction, Xinhua news agency said.

As of October 2018, China has seen 153 counties officially removed from the country's list of impoverished areas, with the documented people in absolute poverty accounting for less than 3 percent of the local population.