LANZHOU, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been intensifying efforts to support areas of abject poverty, with 590 million yuan (92.4 million U.S. dollars) of funds invested last year, official data showed.

In 2017, centrally administered SOEs carried out more than 1,500 poverty relief projects in regions with abject poverty, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said Monday.

According to Hao Peng, an official with SASAC, all central SOEs have established arms specifically devoted to poverty reduction.

A poverty relief fund backed by the SASAC and central SOEs has attracted 15.4 billion yuan in capital. As of April, 9.2 billion yuan had been invested in 45 projects in poor areas.

The central SOEs will invest more in areas of abject poverty, Hao said.

Policy makers have listed poverty alleviation as one of the country's "three tough battles" for the next three years, along with risk prevention and pollution control.

The country still had around 30 million people living below the national poverty line at the end of last year. The government aims to lift more than 10 million people out of poverty in 2018.