China has recorded tremendous achievements in poverty reduction and its experience was worthy for other countries to learn from, but it's still too early to break up champagne, said Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme in Shanghai Thursday.

China's poverty situation was changing, Brown told Xinhua in an exclusive interview amid the Global Conference on Scaling Up Poverty Reduction.

The once large-scale poverty was replaced by about 30 million population in poverty scattered in some corners of the country, he said.

China's most valuable experience on poverty relief was to formulate and carry out effective and constant policies in reducing poverty, even since the initiation of reform and opening-up over two decades ago, which was "very difficult" in other countries, Brown said.

Statistics from the UNDP show that of the reduced half population in poverty in Asia during the 1978-2003 period, most were in China and India.

Chinese population in extreme poverty declined from 250 million in 1978 to 29 million in 2003 and most of the rural residents have had enough food and clothing.

The social participation also impressed Brown very much. "The poverty-relief policies forged by the central government were strictly carried out by the local governments even at the gross-roots level," the UN agency's chief said.

Brown also warned China of new forms of poverty, especially in the cities. "Their income might be a little higher than the official bench mark, but their life quality was terrible."

Source: Xinhua