China launched Thursday a trans-provincial program to help a southwestern mountainous region shake off poverty from 2011-2020.

The leading group for poverty alleviation and development under the State Council led a meeting to launch the program in Zhaotong, Yunnan province, to develop the Wumeng Mountain region that covers 38 underdeveloped counties in the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu said at the meeting that accelerating the economic and social development of the Wumeng Mountain region was not only necessary for improving the well-being of the people there, but also a strategic choice made to push forward China's strategy to develop the western regions and promote coordinated and sustainable regional development.

Hui said trans-provincial impoverished regions would be the major battlefields for poverty alleviation over the next few years.

In November 2011, China launched a trans-provincial trial scheme for poverty relief at the Wuling Mountain region, which covers 71 counties in the provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, and Chongqing municipality.