China's poverty-relief experiences helpful to other nations: WB

Beijing(China)—China has made much contribution to the world poverty relief efforts and its experiences are helpful to other nations, said a World Bank official.
James Adams, the World Bank's new vice president for East Asia and the Pacific region, said on his China visit Thursday that the World Bank is summarizing China's successful experiences and hopes to bring them to other low-income nations.
Strong government role in the reform, prudent fiscal policy and learning from others are the key to China's success in poverty reduction, said Adams.
The WB official also spoke highly of China's practice in foreign trade, saying that the Chinese economy has been growing very well since its entry into the World Trade Organization and the country has become a beneficiary of trade opening up.
According to World Bank figures, the poor population in China was reduced by 195 million in the 1990-2002 period. The ratio of poor people to its total population dropped from 16 percent in 2001 to 10 percent in 2004. In other words, more than 60 million Chinese people got rid of poverty in the three years.
Currently, a large amount of people in China fell into poverty due to unemployment, injuries at work, diseases or bad harvests. The policies on risk prevention such as medical insurance and minimum living subsidy will be more important, said Adams. Currently, a large amount of people in China fell into poverty due to unemployment, injuries at work, diseases or bad harvests. The policies on risk prevention such as medical insurance and minimum living subsidy will be more important, said Adams.
The official also praised measures in China's 11th Five-Year Program (2006-2010) to solve problems in sustainable and fair development.
Despite the achievements, poverty remains a big issue in China. By the end of 2005, China had 23.65 million rural population who did not have adequate food and clothing. The poor population in China was estimated to be at least 200 million in accordance with the UN standard of one dollar per day. The figure is only next to India. The country also suffers unbalanced development between urban and rural areas as well as between the east and the west. Its fast economic growth in past years has caused serious environmental problems and the social welfare is relatively backward. Those all make the poverty relief harder.

—Daily Mail, People’s Daily news exchange item