The country has made significant progress in fighting poverty
and will continue its involvement in the global effort to help the
poor, an official said.
"The number of rural people in absolute poverty fell from 250
million in 1978 to 21.5 million last year. The national poverty
rate is now 2.3 percent, down from 30.7 percent 30 years ago," Fan
Xiaojian, deputy chief of the State Council Leading Group for
Poverty Alleviation, said.
And the number of low-income earners dropped to 35.5 million in
2006 from 62.1 million in 2000. Low-income earners account for only
3.7 percent of the rural population, Fan said at the China-ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Expo in Ninning.
Fan shared China's experiences in fighting poverty with
officials and experts from ASEAN countries at the forum.
"China has taken a government-led approach to reducing poverty
and given all social resources full play to help lift people out of
poverty," he said.
While focusing on people's livelihoods, China has also taken an
active role in fighting poverty around the globe in recent
years.
For example, the country set up the China International Poverty
Alleviation Center in collaboration with the United Nations Develop
Program (UNDP), held the first China-Africa Cooperation Forum and
invited representatives from less-developed countries to seminars
on the issue.
Fan said China will continue to assist developing countries with
their efforts to fight poverty in the interest of simultaneous
development.
"Transnational cooperation will facilitate regional
poverty-elimination efforts," Renaud Meyer, UNDP's deputy
representative to China, said.
But Fan acknowledged China still faces many challenges.
"The Chinese standard of poverty is relatively lower than the
international benchmark. In fact, China has 100 million people
living on less than US$1 a day, the poverty line drawn by the World
Bank," said Fan.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2007)