A senior Chinese official said in Shanghai Wednesday that China
is facing new challenges in the new phase of the poverty reduction
course despite the remarkable achievements the country has made
during the past over 20 years, among which, to increase farmer's
income is of the most urgency.
Liu Jian, director of China's State Council Leading Group Office
of Poverty Alleviation and Development, made the remark when
addressing the ongoing Global Conference of Scaling Up on Poverty
Reduction in Shanghai.
On the work level, poverty reduction and development in China
face new challenges in the new era, and following profound changes
in the supply and demand relationships of farm produce in China, it
has become a brand new topic as how to help poor farmers to
increase their income under the circumstances of strong competition
on the farm produce market, Liu said.
Along with the improving market economy system, the mechanism of
poverty reduction work needs to be further explored and innovated,
Liu noted.
Official statistics show that, due to historical reasons, the
majority of China's poor population lives in rural areas. In 1978,
just prior to the reform and opening to the rest of the world,
China had 250 million poor people, who were inadequately fed and
clothed, representing a poverty incidence of 30 percent.
With 25-year unremitting efforts, the poor areas have witnessed
significant improvements in their production and living conditions
and the number of inadequately fed and clothed poor has declined to
29 million, representing a poverty incidence of 3 percent,
statistics show.
Liu said China has explored out a poverty reduction road adapted
to the Chinese reality in the poverty reduction and development
process, which is characterized by "government playing a leading
role, social participation, self-reliance of the poor,
development-based poverty reduction and all-round coordinated
development".
According to Liu, China would be dedicated to establishing a
more effective poverty reduction mechanism and adhere to the
people-centered development strategy and start setting up a dynamic
monitoring system of the poor population.
China would also place priority on improving basic production
and living conditions, raising general qualifications of the poor
and increase their income, and further increase investments in
poverty reduction, Liu pledged, adding that the country would
continue pursuing the practice of developing and expanding
exchanges and collaboration with international organizations on
poverty reduction.
"Over the years, we have made great progress in collaborating
with the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and
with bilateral governmental organizations and nongovernmental
organizations, and these collaboration initiatives not only have
had direct and important impacts on reducing poverty in China, but
also have brought in with them poverty reduction experience and
scientific methodologies of the international community to China
and helped to improve the overall quality of the Chinese poverty
reduction work", Liu stressed.
(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2004)