China contributes to global anti-poverty efforts

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 26, 2004

China contributes to global anti-poverty efforts

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China has made important contributions to the global cause of poverty reduction by cutting the number of desperately poor people from 250 million in 1978 to just 30 million in 2003, according to a United Nations report issued in Beijing Thursday.

The UN report on China's progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) said China had already achieved the goal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty ahead of the international deadline of 2015.

China's success offers hope for poverty reduction efforts around the globe, World Bank Vice President Frannie Leautier said after an on-the-spot inspection of poverty alleviation projects in southwest China earlier this month.

A total of 147 million people in the Asia Pacific region have been alleviated from extreme poverty over the past decade, UN Deputy Secretary-General Kim Hak-su told an international conference in Beijing Thursday.

The "Asia miracle" should be attributed to China's exceptional economic growth and India's significant progress, he said.

However, China is facing new challenges in the progress of poverty reduction as the disparity of incomes between urban and rural residents widened. In order to solve the problem of unbalanced development, the Chinese government has adopted a new ideology of sustainable growth. Kim said future progress in global poverty reduction requires a new line of thinking that focuses on strategies to help the poor.

He said the Chinese government had instituted tax cuts, greater rural investment and better medical care and schooling in rural areas.

Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said at a three-day international conference on the MDGs that as the new idea of sustainable development takes deeper root in the mind of the Chinese people, China will accelerate its pace in achieving the poverty reduction goals.

His comment was echoed by Ruberns Ricupero, secretary-general of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Ricupero said at the seminar that China has set an example for other countries in the anti-poverty drive.

Source: Xinhua

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