Dai, governor of the People's Bank of China, said at the sixth meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee that China is still a low-income developing country with 30 million people living below the poverty line.

While striving to reduce its own poverty with international support, China will, as always, actively support and participate in the poverty reduction efforts of the international community, by providing assistance on both bilateral and multilateral basis within its capacity, said Dai.

Poverty coupled with an imbalanced development is the sources of many problems, Dai said. It is only if importance is attached to resolving these problems can sustained peace and development be achieved in the world, he added.

"We support the Fund's work in poverty reduction, and urge the Fund to continue its efforts to reduce the debt burden of the least developed countries," said Dai.

Developed countries should assume major responsibility in this process, he said, commenting: "We hope the Fund and the Bank can further streamline their procedures and fully respect ownership of recipient countries, so as to bring the initiatives of the authorities and people of these countries into full play."

Poverty reduction is an arduous long-term task, said Dai. While providing financial and technical assistance, the international community should be fully aware of the constraints faced by the poor countries in such areas as infrastructure and institutional capacity, and avoid posing unrealistic requirements on them, he said.

And he warned that unrealistic requirements could hamper progress in poverty reduction and increase the burden of these poor countries.

(China Daily September 30, 2002)