Remarks at the Workshop on Poverty Policy and Practice for African Countries(script)

Wang Guoliang
Deputy Director of China State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development
5 July 2006

Ladies and gentlemen：
　　Good morning! First, on behalf of China State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, I extend my congratulations to the workshop and my sincere welcome to all the participants.
　　Africa is the continent of the largest number of developing countries. African countries have been making progress with political stabilization and economic growth. However, African remains the poorest region in the world. 34 out of the 49 least-developed countries lie in Africa. With its population of 13% to world total, its economic value accounts for just 1% of world total. The weak economic basis and laggard social development constrained the regional development. Surveys done by the World Bank over the wealth distribution in 120 countries indicated that the per capita wealth obtained by the richest countries was $ 648 thousand, 330 times more than that in African countries which was $ 1965. Human Development Report 2005 released by UNDP showed that 18 countries in the world stayed back in their economic growth and 12 of them are the countries in sub-Saharan region.
　　China is the largest developing country. It bore many similarities with African countries 30 years ago. But starting from the end of the 1970s, thanks to the policy of reform and opening up, Chinese economy has witnessed sustained growth and thanks to the specialized national program for poverty reduction, poverty in rural China was remarkably reduced. According to the poverty standard adopted by the Chinese Government, the number of absolute poor declined from 250 million in 1978 to 23.65 million in 2005, poverty incidence declining from 30.7% to 2.5%. China is the only country to achieve in advance the goal in MDGs to halve the poor population, making great contribution to the world poverty reduction. China has different national particularities with African countries but share many things in common with African countries as a developing country. For example, the majority of poor are living in rural areas, infrastructure in poor areas are underdeveloped, weak economic strengths, serious poverty degree, low human resources and insufficient funding, etc. I headed a Chinese delegation to four African countries, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa in this May. I found many similarities between China and the four countries and I believe Chinese experience is worth learning for African countries. Besides, I also believe that only if China strengthened its collaboration with Africa, poverty issues plaguing Africa would for sure be addressed as in China. In the African countries that I visited before, I was impressed by many projects like community-based development, capacity building and HIV/AIDs. China should learn from the success of these projects. I think China has the following five aspects of experience that can be shared with you:
　　First, develop anti-poverty strategy to meet basic demands of human being. The livelihoods of the poor, especially the basic food, drinking water, sanitary facility, health care service, primary education, informal education and housing should be the focus of the strategy.
　　Second, take development-oriented measures like training, social service and micro-finance. The absolute poor in rural areas should be provided with micro, low interest and sustainable credit so that the poor enjoy not only necessary economic conditions to get out of poverty but also the chances and right to rely on themselves for a better-off life.
　　Third, mobilize social factors into actions of poverty reduction. It includes: 1) 280 government agencies, democratic parties, associations of industry and commerce and enterprises support 480 key poor counties for national support; 2) 15 relatively developed provinces and municipalities in eastern coastal areas support 11 poor provinces and municipalities in western China; 3) Civil societies, NGOs and the mass people take their roles to play in reducing poverty. These diversified social participation has helped diminish and eradicate poverty and promote development in poor regions.
　　Fourth, rise up to the challenges brought by globalization. Funding, technology and equipments should be introduced to poor areas by trades and absorption of foreign capital, so that the poor regions and local people could be stimulated to production. With the assistance and collaboration from UNDP, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and some social actors, China conducted a series of project and input directly to poor areas, which has enhanced local production and living conditions.
　　Fifth, establish anti-disaster mechanism to guard against natural disasters and minimize the risk from disasters. China is one of the countries that suffers a lot from natural disasters. The direct loss caused by disasters each year stands at $ 12 billion. The worst impact is on the production and life of the poor living in mid and west of China. The government has to pay for the assistance and relief to help the 70 million Chinese people struck by disasters of which the poor is a large proportion. Statistics shows that the number of Chinese falling back to poverty due to disasters is more than 10 million.
　　On the one hand, China prepared sufficient storage of grain, water, simple tents, medicines, facilities and emergency teams in the areas inclined to be the venues of droughts and floods just in case. On the other hand, the government and NGOs like China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and Red-Cross Federation aid vulnerable communities by collecting resources for them. Donation stations can be found everywhere from municipal areas to the provinces to help after-disaster reconstruction.
　　Despite the achievements, China as the developing country with the largest population and most unbalanced economy, is still facing challenges.
First, the absolute number of the poor remains huge. By the end of 2005, the absolute poor numbered 23.65 million and those with subsistent livelihood but can hardly be sustained numbered 40.67 million. These poor are living in regions with difficult conditions, immature market, limited human resource, limited source of income and thus are easily returning to poverty. This is the most daunting challenge to China.
　　Second, the cost and difficulty is increasing while the speed of reduction is slowing down. In the 1980s, rural poor declined by 13.5 million by year, in the 1990s, it declined by 5.3 million less than the previous period, and between 2002 and 2005, the decline was further slowed to 1.4 million by year.
Third, the poor communities are more vulnerable and the gap between rich and poor is enlarging. Over the past 13 years, the income ceiling of the poor and that for average farmers had an expanded gap from 1:2.45 to 1:4.76. The growth of education, health and social security in rural areas can’t equal those in developed areas. Some poor counties are far from popularizing the nine-year compulsory education. It’s a common sight that drugs and medicines are all the time in short and maternal death remains high.
　　To address the above-mentioned challenges and to build up a well-off and harmonious society, China decided to do its utmost to realize two goals during the Eleventh Five Year Plan for National Social and Economic Development: basically ensure subsistence of rural poor and gradually increase their income; complete planning of village-based development projects for 148 thousand key poor counties along with the construction of new village.
　　In the future five years, China will focus its efforts on the following seven measures in order to realize the mentioned goals: first, closely target the real poor and carry out more targeted policies; second, carry on the on-going projects of village-based development; third, expand training for labor transfer and improve the skills of the poor to take a job in non-agro sectors and make sure that at lease one member of each household could be trained within the next five years; fourth, promote industrialization, restructure household business and enhance the efficiency of expenditure; fifth, increase financial input to poverty reduction, enhance financial management; sixth, continue with mobilization of social resources; seventh, step up leadership for poverty reduction and mainstream plan of poverty reduction to national plans.
　　The workshop today was hosted to carry on the speech made by Chinese President at the 60th UN Anniversary Summit of Development Fundraising. I hope you may get a better understanding of Chinese economic and social development, agricultural issues, poverty reduction policies and practices after this workshop. At the same time, we desire to learn from and share your successful stories. I believe African countries should also have more exchange and communication with one another to contribute to the achievements of MDGs.
　　Finally, I wish a success of the workshop.
　　Thanks.