Speech in the China Forum for Poverty Alleviation and Development and the Celebration Ceremony for the International Day of Poverty Eradication
by Mr. Liu Jian, Director General of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development
Liu Jian, Director General of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOPAD),
October 17, 2005
Distinguished Madame Gu Xiulian Mr.Lee Soo Sung and Mr.Khalid Malik, dear friends£º
¡¡¡¡Today is the thirteenth International Day for Poverty Eradication. The theme for this year is specified as Poverty Reduction and Development in the Process of Building a Harmonious Society. It has long been the unremitting aspiration of the Chinese from generation to generation building a society filled with love and care where a balanced relation is established between man and man and between man and nature. Today we are standing on a new historical starting point in the pursuit of economic and social development. To adapt to the changes, the Chinese government came up with a brand-new mentality of governance, that is constructing a socialist harmonious society. The innovative idea is now translating into practical operations in various areas of which poverty eradication and diminished gap between the rich and poor constitute a central part.
Poverty and worsening wealth discrepancy that plague the world will drive the whole society into unbalanced growth and consequently ail the sound development of national economy. In regard of the impact of poverty on harmonious development, there are three aspects I think is noteworthy. First, poverty causes mental imbalance that amplifies the otherwise slight severity of social problems, that is likely to produce a sharp relation between some small groups and the whole society and even worse social riot. Second, poverty is a stimulus of mental tension that distorts human reaction to the society. If the poor keeps bereft of equal rights and opportunities for development, those other than the poor will slump into an inevitable panic of poverty. And to avoid the possibility, they can do nothing but battle with each other, break the established rule of human society and reverse the harmonious human relationship. This is an important trigger of vicious economic competition in today¡¯s world. Third, chronicle poverty is usually connected with over-exploitation of natural resources resulting in conflicts between human and nature. As a developing country, we must avoid the mistakes made by some countries whose ignorance over unequal wealth distribution has stifled the once highly rapid growth and disturbed social order. The government and the society must give more attention to the poor and to poverty reduction. Poverty eradication is not only an urgent task for the poor and poor areas but also a common responsibility on the whole society.
Distinguished guests, dear friends£º
Regarding it an unshakable mandate to reduce poverty, to bring about a sustainable, sound and fast economic growth and to create a well-off life for its people, the Chinese government yielded no energy in the time-consuming campaign against poverty with great achievements. The poverty incidence declined from 30.7% at the beginning of reform and opening-us to 2.8% by the end of 2004. The poor living in poor areas have seen significant advances of their livelihoods. However, the task remains daunting. For the new period of poverty reduction, it is more difficult and costly to remove poverty as the process is slower and the poor is less empowered.
China is now facing a mixed mission of reducing poverty and stabilizing the better livelihoods combined. Reducing poverty is difficult, but consolidating the achievements of poverty reduction in a stable and sustained manner is much more difficult. Furthermore, we have to be fully aware of the fact that the increase of income for the poor to realize common prosper requires efforts of generations.
The just-completed fifth plenary session of the sixteenth CPC Central Committee concluded that China must intensify poverty reduction by constructing new villages. The construction of new socialist villages is not confined to those developed areas but rather the rural areas in the mid and west of China.
Drawing upon the lessons learnt from the Tenth Five Year Plan period, for the coming five years, we must continue the guideline of reducing poverty through development complimented by relief and other approaches and we must explore and pilot the establishment of a social security net. We must be clear in that our target will expand from those without sufficient food and shelter to those with low income. We will help reverse their vulnerability. That¡¯s the way to achieve our double goals of obtaining and maintaining the sufficient livelihoods at the same time. We must keep reaching the poor and benefiting the poor. We will file the information of poor rural households so as to ensure the assistance truly in place. We must carry on the principle of giving the same emphasis to natural resources and human resources, which, if specified in practice, is to popularize the nine year compulsory education and relevant trainings. We must persist in the comprehensive development of both the economy and the society. All social undertakings are expected to blossoming along with economic growth. We must hold to the perfect combination of government leadership, extensive participation and self-reliance of the poor as a principle of poverty reduction. We must mobilize more social resources as an addition to the increasing government finance for poverty. We must give a the credit funding a full role to play. We must encourage the officials and the mass in poor areas to participate in the career by either labor or financial input. We must respect the right to participation and the right to benefit of the poor. The decision-making at various levels of government should listen to the voice of the poor and take into account the possible impact of the new policies on the poor. We must endeavor to facilitate the poor in enjoying their right to information, participation and benefit, so as to create coordinated development of among different genders, nationalities and communities.
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen£º
We will continue the poverty reduction approach as making the village the smallest unit of poverty reduction planning and funding, which is applicable in constructing new villages and a well-off Xiaokang society. We selected 148 thousand poor villages, and by the end of 2004, the poverty reduction program targeting these villages have completed in 29.9 thousand villages and are proceeding in 35.5 thousand villages. To meet the requirements of constructing new villages, we figure to further integrate poverty reduction planning at village level during the Eleventh Five Year Plan period. Since last year, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development launched a pilot program of Poverty Reduction and Development in the Process of Building a Harmonious Society in Yilong, Sichuan Province. And later on, other areas followed the case. The program centers on the following six aspects: 1.infrastructure construction including access of the poor to clean water, roads, electricity, extension of telephone line and radio and TV signals, improvement of water, kitchen, toilet and pigsty facilities and use of marsh gas for production and living. 2. public service that enhance the quality of population including education, health and labor training. 3. industrialization that means the poor villages under the umbrella of the program should all create industries that is able to increase the income for the poor. 4. creation of a viable atmosphere to reshape the in villages, more specifically, contesting for harmonious families and revisions of laws and regulations. 5. enhancing democracy, regulating management and building a sense of law among the rural poor. 6. construction of the governing agencies at the village level with the development of the governing team as the core. We are resolute to complete the construction of villages in the above six aspects during the program period of the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
Distinguished guests, dear friends£º
It is the Chinese people long-cherished dream to have a world of wealth and peace. Today, the dream can be realized in the pursuit of a Xiaokang Society and a socialist harmonious society. China, with its huge population of 1.3 billion, contributes to the human development throughout the world by each bit of progress it made in poverty reduction. Let us join our hands, help the poor people benefit from economic growth equally and speed up the poverty reduction pace in poor areas.
