Poverty reduction and elimination is not only an urgent task
facing individual countries but also a shared responsibility for
the whole international community, Premier Wen
Jiabao said Wednesday at a global meeting to brainstorm over
ways to battle poverty.
Widespread poverty, which remains a severe threat to world peace
and development, is caused by diverse social, historical and
natural causes as well as being closely related with an unfair and
irrational international political and economic order, Wen said at
the opening of the Shanghai Conference on Scaling Up Poverty
Reduction.
Poverty reduction is not only an economic problem but also a
political one, said the Chinese premier, who put forward five
propositions.
Wen said all countries should work together to maintain peace
and stability, as well social stability at home, to create a
convenient environment for poverty reduction work.
He also called on the establishment of a new international
political and economic order that is fair and rational, adding that
"all countries should respect each other and co-exist in peace
politically, and work to achieve common development on the basis of
equality and mutual benefits economically."
"The vast number of developing countries, in particular, should
be able to share the fruits of prosperity from global development
in a fair and equitable way," he said.
Thirdly, developed countries have a duty and responsibility to
provide the developing nations with greater support.
During the current process of economic globalization, developing
countries are in a disadvantaged position, Wen said. Developed
countries should give more support to developing ones, further
relieving their debts, speeding up technology transfers and getting
rid of trade protectionism.
Being a populous developing country, China is ready to offer
help to international poverty reduction efforts, Wen said. The
Chinese government has elected to pledge another US$30 million to
the Asian Development Fund in addition to pumping US$50 million
into the African Development Fund.
Moreover, the Chinese government will contribute an extra US$20
million to the Asia Development Bank to create the "China Special
Fund for Poverty Reduction and Regional Cooperation" in support of
relevant endeavors in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
In order to stamp out poverty in developing countries, Wen
stressed they should work hard by themselves as well enhance
partnerships with each other to boost common development.
He said it is also necessary that international organizations,
such as the World Bank and the United Nations, should mobilize and
organize more people and organizations to combat global poverty
reduction.
"It is necessary to sum up and popularize the poverty relief
experience of developing countries and encourage both the North and
the South to move together to honor their commitments to the
Millennium Development Goals and the Monterey Census," Wen
said.
Saying that China has done a good job in scaling up its efforts
to reduce poverty over the past 20 years, World Bank President
James Wolfensohn said the whole world has much to learn from China
and at the same time China can learn from the world as well.
According to Wen, China has lifted more than 200 million people
from poverty since it had adopted "large-scale, consistent and
productive programs of poverty alleviation and rural development"
in the early 1980s.
After Wen's keynote speech, Brazilian President Lula da Silva,
Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa and Bangladeshi Prime
Minister Begum Khaleda Zia also made speeches at the conference to
exchange experiences on scaling up the reduction of poverty in
their own countries.
More than 1,000 people, mostly from developing countries,
attended the conference and will examine nine months worth of
development research including 100 case studies, a dozen field
visit reports and results from extensive global discussions, said a
news release of the World Bank.
Co-sponsored by the World Bank and the Chinese government, the
two-day conference is scheduled to close today.
(China Daily May 27, 2004)