Political determination fuels poverty reduction in China

Political determination of the Chinese government is playing an important role in poverty reduction in China, which has still 29 million people lacking enough food and clothing, down from 250 million 25 years ago.

Since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy two decades ago, the most populous country has recorded tremendous achievements in economic progress, with a concept of some people and some regions getting rich at first and then the whole society reaching common prosperity.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at the opening ceremony of the Global Conference on Scaling Up Poverty Reduction here that China will strive to share the economic fruits with all the people to reach common prosperity, social justice and fairness.

"Such political will is very impressive," said a senior advisor of the World Bank.

But challenges remain. The expanding income gap between rural and urban residents and even between urban residents and unbalanced regional development were the vital problems.

In a bid to settle such problems, the Chinese government decided to build a well-off society in a comprehensive way in two decades and the new leadership raised a new concept of development that was people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable.

Poverty reduction has become one of the primary methods adopted by the government in narrowing regional differences, both between the rural and urban areas and the western and eastern parts of China.

In the past two years, the central government allocated new funds for poverty reduction and the annual input reached 12.2 billion yuan (1.4 billion US dollars); the local government also added subsidies for the poor population.

The central government also suggested the local governments help each other in poverty reduction, especially asking the 13 richer provinces or municipalities in the east such as Shanghai to help the 10 less-developed in west China such as Yunnan Province.

The market-oriented economy also resulted in a sustainable development mechanism for poverty reduction. Micro-financing for farmers and the assistance from the private sector helped the poverty alleviation.

"A political motivation has been forged and the Chinese mechanism helps the government to stimulate poverty alleviation," said Du Xiaoshan, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Source: Xinhua