BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- China has more than 816,000 registered social organizations as of Saturday, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Social organizations in China include community groups, trust foundations, industry organizations and non-profit organizations.
With the fast development of social organizations in recent years, they have become an important force in poverty alleviation, said a statement release by the ministry.
The central government has been encouraging social organizations to play a greater role in poverty reduction as the country aims to lift all rural residents living below the current poverty line out of poverty by the year 2020.
The ministry's social organizations administration vowed continued efforts to help these organizations participate in poverty alleviation by solving their difficulties in a timely manner and punishing those that commit crimes under false pretenses of poverty alleviation.
