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WB Satisfied With Poverty-reduction Program in South China
A World Bank official said Thursday he is satisfied with the progress of the bank's US$113 million poverty alleviation program in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China.
Alan Piazza, an official with the bank, said he was very surprised to see all the school age children in the region's Mashan County attending school, a target he thought impossible to reach seven years ago.
In 1994, when he was in Mashan doing preparatory work for the bank's huge poverty-reduction project in southwest China, Piazza was promised by a county official that all of the children at school age in the county would be able to go to school by 2001.
Piazza made the remarks when he met Zhou Mingfu, deputy chairman of the region.
Zhou said the project has helped lift 900,000 people in the target area out of poverty, and its experience has also been drawn for poverty alleviation in other parts of the region.
The project is the first World Bank poverty alleviation project in China, and was designed to lift 3.5 million people in southwest China, including Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, out of poverty within six years.
About 420,000 farmers in Guangxi received training and 90,000 farmers were given job opportunities through labor export plans during the six years, thanks to the project.
As part of the project, highways have been built for 310,000 people, who used to live in inaccessible areas, and drinking water projects have helped 240,000 people to have access to adequate drinking water.
In addition, 240 school buildings have been built and 100,000 students have received funding from the program.
Piazza also expressed satisfaction over the computer information management system used to monitor the poverty- reduction program.
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