Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met in Beijing on the afternoon of December 13 with World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director James T. Morris. They discussed further strengthening cooperation between China and WFP.

China and WFP have been in cooperation since 1979. Over the past 25 years, the UN food agency has sponsored more than 70 programs in China and provided some 925 million US dollars in aid to China. The programs have been implemented mostly as scheduled.

Morris said it is an extraordinary human achievement that China has moved 300 million people out of hunger and poverty over the years. He said China has accumulated more experience in alleviating poverty than any other country at any time in history.

Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to continuing long-term cooperation, noting that a harder job still lies ahead as 30 million people in China and a total of 850 million in the world are still living in sheer poverty.

Morris said China's efforts to provide 9-year compulsory education for all children is the most powerful investment it madein the future of the country and the world as well. He noted that half of the 850 million people in hunger around the world are children.

He also expressed the belief that China will accomplish its goals in the next phase of poverty alleviation.

The Chinese government has stepped up input in poverty alleviation, spending more than 10 billion yuan every year on improving living conditions and production capacity in poor areas.

In addition, the government is cutting farming taxes, and increasing funding for education and health care in rural areas.

Morris and his entourage are in China at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, which has kept close cooperation with WFP. Besides Beijing, Morris also visited poor rural areas in Gansu province in northwest China.

WFP, the food aid organization of the United Nations, became operational in 1963. It provides relief assistance to victims of natural and man-made disaster, and supplies food aid to people in developing countries with the aim of stimulating self-reliant communities.