China aims to eradicate poverty by 2020

According to that standard, at the end of 2014, China still had over 70 million people in the countryside living below the poverty threshold. China bases it’s poverty line on 2,300 yuan ($362) annually or about $1 a day.

Addressing the Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum in Beijing, Xi said China will work to fight the hard battle against poverty. China was the first developing country to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of reducing the population living in poverty by half ahead of the 2015 deadline.

In the past 30 years, China had lifted more than 600 million citizens out of poverty. Last year Zheng Wenkai, vice-minister of an office for poverty alleviation and development under China’s State Council, said that China achieved great success in helping almost 40 million poor rural residents overcome poverty last year.

While striving to reduce poverty at home, China has also been actively supporting the cause in other developing countries. During his visit to United Nations Headquarters in New York last month, Xi pledged a $2 billion fund to facilitate developing countries’ implementation of the post-2015 development agenda. Over the past 60 years, China has provided 166 countries and global organizations with almost 400 billion yuan (US$62.95 billion) of assistance.

In a video message for today’s forum, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon also praised China’s remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation.

“Human intelligence, creativity and talent are renewable resources par excellence”, the Director-General said, adding: “we can invest more in them to define economic, social and cultural policies that allow us to eradicate poverty and ensure that everyone can exercise their full rights, with dignity and social justice”. “And it has made the biggest contribution to the reduction of extreme poverty in this world”, he said. This is an important step in implementing China’s development agenda after 2015.

Indeed, for UNESCO, the eradication of poverty is a cornerstone in the fight for human rights and human dignity. “We have supported the developing countries, in particular the least developing countries, in eradicating poverty”, Xi said.

“We are ready to share our development experience and opportunities with other countries and welcome them to board China’s express train of development so that all of us will achieve common development”, Xi said.

Global Day for the Eradication of Poverty is being observed on Saturday (October 17), in a bid to promotes people’s awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution worldwide, particularly in developing countries.