SCIO briefing on poverty alleviation and development

CCTV:

The Chinese government has attached importance to the development of poverty alleviation over a long period of time, with different goals and tasks being proposed for different time periods. Are there any differences between the goals proposed in the central government's poverty alleviation and development conference and the goals proposed in the past? Do the goals proposed this time mean that there will be no problem of poverty in Chinese rural areas after 2020? What kind of considerations do you have for specific ideas, directions and tasks of poverty alleviation and development work after 2020? Thank you.

Liu Yongfu:

As you said just now, the Chinese government has attached great importance to poverty alleviation and development work. A series of measures have been taken since the period of reform and opening up to the outside world, including the Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program (1994-2000), the Outline of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas in China (2001-2010), and the current Outline of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas in China (2011-2020). Now, more than half of the current outline has been implemented. There are indeed some differences between the current poverty alleviation program and the ones in the past.

First, they have different backgrounds. Our poverty alleviation will strive to comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society. We didn't propose this goal in the past, we proposed other goals instead. As mentioned just now, the basic goal for building a moderately prosperous society is for everyone to be lifted out of poverty. If the problems associated with the impoverished population cannot be solved and if the problem of impoverished counties cannot be solved, we cannot say a moderately prosperous society has been comprehensively built. Therefore, there are different backgrounds.

Second, they have different requirements. The Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program (1994-2000) gave us seven years to solve the problem of the 80 million people living under the poverty line. However, we didn't accomplish that goal, with more than 30 million people still living under the poverty line. The Outline of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas in China (2001-2010) raised the standard to help 94 million people rise out of poverty, but there were still 26 million living under the poverty line. This time, we are striving to help more than 70 million people shake off poverty as scheduled, and leave no place in China unaffected by the program. Even if at last some people are still unable to completely shake off poverty through poverty alleviation measures, a minimum subsistence allowance system will be answerable for all the consequences.

The main differences are the periods of time and requirements, while the fundamental purpose is the same, namely to make all of the rural people, especially the poorer population, share the fruits of reform and opening up to the outside world and share the fruits of economic and social development. Just now you raised the question concerning what we will consider when the problem of poverty is solved. By 2020, we will have already solved the problem of the current absolute impoverished population. There is a standard for the absolute impoverished population and each country has its own standard. China set its standard at an annual income of 2,300 yuan in 2010 and about 3,000 yuan this year.

It doesn't mean that China will have no impoverished population after 2020. The impoverished population by then and the current impoverished population are not exactly the same, with the latter being relatively a poorer population. China is the largest developing country in the world, and the problem of poverty will be long-standing. Even the most developed countries in the world cannot say that they have no impoverished population. Now, the United Nations' development agenda after 2030 set its goal of solving the problem of the existing extreme poverty population before 2030. China sets its goal of solving the problem of its extremely impoverished population by 2020, 10 years earlier than the goal set by the United Nations. Because we still have time now, our task of first importance is to help more than 70 million impoverished people shake off poverty. We are also wasting no time in studying the problems that may arise after 2020. For example, we will solve the problem of poverty by changing absolute poverty into relative poverty. Currently, we are mainly focusing on the problems in rural areas. Since the urbanization will be further improved after 2020, we also will make overall plans in solving the problem of urban and rural poverty. These are our general ideas.

Thank you.