HOHHOT, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will help 140,000 people and all its county-level regions escape poverty in 2019, local authorities said Monday.

Governments at all levels invested 10.1 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) of special poverty-relief fund in 2018, up 25 percent year on year, lifting 235,000 people out of poverty, it said.

About 332,000 government officials attended training sessions for poverty alleviation last year.

The regional government said the poverty headcount ratio had dropped to 1.06 percent by the end of last year.

In 2019, the government will strengthen the implementation of poverty relief policies, deepen cooperation with Beijing city on fighting poverty and boost its featured industries to create more jobs and income for local people.