Following are some quotes on poverty reduction from Jiao Jialiang, a political advisor and vice president of the Yunnan Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, at the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee on Friday:

-- Border areas inhabited by ethnic minorities are in an underdeveloped situation for a long time. The problem of absolute poverty is still to be overcome in some areas.

-- During the country's development over the past years, the development gap between border areas inhabited by ethnic minorities and other regions is widening.

-- The nation should set a timetable, for example, five to 10 years, to effectively solve the absolute poverty problem in border areas inhabited by ethnic minorities.

-- An overall goal of poverty reduction should be defined in order to help ethnic groups in border areas live a relatively decent life with living standards higher than those in neighboring countries.