State 'committed to poverty goal'

Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu pledged on Friday that China will come up with "increased efforts" to alleviate global poverty and fulfill its international responsibility to ensure a harmonious world.

He was addressing a forum organized by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China and UN China to mark the 16th International Day for Poverty Eradication.

Hui told officials China will reciprocate the assistance it received in the past from the international community.

China will play an active role with its international partners in formulating policies to fight global poverty and share its own experiences, he said.

"We aim to bridge the wealth gap, ensure prosperity and develop a harmonious world.

"We will always remember the help given us by our foreign friends.

"What we have done and continue to do is to return the assistance and help we received," Hui said.

China has made great contributions to reducing global poverty since 2004. Developing countries are major recipients of its assistance.

Statistics show that by the end of June this year, China had cancelled a total of 24.7 billion yuan of debts for 49 poor and least developed countries in Asia and Africa and had provided 206.5 billion yuan in various forms of assistance.

Hui said China will extend its efforts to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020 after it becomes the world's first developing country in 2015 to meet the UN's target of halving a population's poverty.

China has reduced the number of people in absolute poverty from 250 million to 15 million in less than 30 years.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon applauded Hui's message to the forum. He said China had indeed made a great contribution to the world's efforts to improve human welfare, reduce poverty and hunger.

Nafis Sadik, special advisor to the UN secretary-general, said global anti-poverty efforts were now facing new challenges due to an unstable global economic environment.

He said the poor and vulnerable must be kept in mind as the world's economic problems are addressed.

"As attention and resources are focused on restoring sound financial systems, it would be all too easy to put out of mind the poor and vulnerable population," Sadik said.

Source: China Daily