China Ready to Share Success Story in Poverty Alleviation with Other Countries

By Tokunbo Adedoja in Beijing

China said it hopes to share its success stories, particularly in the area of poverty alleviation, with other countries to help them address the issue.

Speaking while receiving Nigerian media delegation in Beijing, Vice Director-General, Press Bureau, State Council Information Office, Beijing, Ms. Xi Yanchun, said China desired better life for people around the world and poverty alleviation was one of the ways to achieve this.

With a population of 1.3 billion, China’s incredible progress in the reduction of poverty saw more than 500 million people lifted out of extreme poverty over the past three decades, bringing the number of people living below the national poverty line to about two percent of the population, according to the World Bank.

In the past five years, for example, more than 68.5 million people had been lifted out of poverty in China, meaning that 37,000 people moved out of poverty every day. The Asian country has also set an ambitious target of totally eradicating poverty by 2020.

“We have shared some of our experiences on poverty issues, I think now we are more willing to share those experiences. We want all the people from all parts of the world to have a better life and we think one important aspect is poverty alleviation,” Yanchun said.

Noting that the peculiar characteristics of China makes it difficult for countries to copy its model, she added that the process could be adopted and modified.

“To be very frank, I think it is not easy to copy China’s experience because of China’s peculiar large population and also the mobilisation of social resources.

“What China can do within a short time most countries cannot do because in some countries they have several big parties and they quarrel with each other from time to time; sometimes matters that may take short time may take some time to be done in those countries,” she said.

Yanchun noted that the poor needed to be helped out of poverty because they cannot do it by themselves, particularly the disabled.

She cited agriculture as one of the examples of the ways poverty was tackled, noting the direct intervention in the provision of improved seedlings to the rural poor.

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