JAKARTA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday he expects extreme poverty to be reduced to zero percent in the country within next three years.
"We hope in 2024, the extreme poverty can be removed to zero," he told a limited cabinet meeting at the presidential office.
Based on the World Bank's standard of poverty, a total of 9.9 million Indonesian citizens are now living under the extreme poverty line, according to the president.
The World Bank's standard of poverty noted that people with earning less than 1.91 U.S. dollars per day are classified as those living under the extreme poverty line.
The president said the data from the Indonesian Central Agency of Statistics showed that the government has reduced poverty to 9.22 percent in September of last year from 11.22 percent in 2015.
"Scoring below 10 percent is a great achievement, but our works are not over," he added.
The president said that currently the programs to alleviate the poverty from the ministries and government institutions have been focused on the target.
He reminded the state-owned enterprises of focusing their targets on poverty alleviation, among others through their corporate responsibility programs, according to a statement from the cabinet secretariat.
