BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China's poverty relief authority has teamed up with Pinduoduo, one of the country's e-commerce giants, for sales promotion of agricultural products from poverty-stricken regions via livestreaming.

According to the program, jointly launched on Wednesday by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development and Pinduoduo, there will be a one hundred live online sales promotion activities for poverty relief purpose on Pinduoduo's platforms.

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, agricultural product sales were hard hit. Livestreaming is effective in boosting such sales and can help more people rise above poverty, said Hong Tianyun, deputy head of the leading group office.

This came as the country stepped up efforts to achieve its goal of eliminating absolute poverty this year.

Prior to this initiative, Pinduoduo launched an anti-poverty program which, with local officials as livestreaming hosts, helped boost sales of agricultural products from poverty-stricken regions. More than 425 million kilograms of agricultural products had been sold as of May 14, according to the company. Enditem