Interview: China expands capacity-building programs, provides poverty reduction support to developing countries: UNESCAP

China is not only the first developing country to halve its population living in poverty through utilizing the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific platform (UNESCAP), it has been offering capacity-build and useful support for other developing counties.

"It's remarkable that these women from such remote areas in rural China could make such impactful speeches at seminars to their overseas counterparts on how they applied for loans and were supported by our local government and banks in their pursuits of farming or developing family workshops," Li Hong, Chinese Counsellor and permanent representative of China to UNESCAP, told Xinhua.

"This is just one example of the on-going project to share China's methods, experiences and strategies to combat poverty with other countries, under the Gender Responsive Budgeting in Asia-Pacific banner, which is a joint endeavor between China and the ESACP," the counsellor added.

"According to the World Bank, since 1981, more than

670 million Chinese who lived under the international poverty line of 1.25 U.S. dollars per day, have escaped such financial and lifestyle hardships," the Counsellor emphasized.

China successfully fulfilling the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in advance, gave it more confidence to pursue the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), endorsed by the UN in September of 2015, of eradicating poverty by 2030.

Li mentioned that ESCAP has playing a significant role for China to provide support for poverty eradication projects to developing countries.

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, the Executive Secretary of the ESCAP, has applauded China for sharing its experience in poverty-reduction and said it has a far-reaching meaning for the Asia-Pacific region.

In 1986, China set up a China-ESCAP Cooperation Fund in UNESCAP for the promotion of regional cooperation. Since then, China has donated around 8 million U.S. dollars to this fund and almost 200 projects have since been completed.

Among these projects, 25 percent of them were poverty reduction related. For example, the poverty alleviation project through Human Research Development (HRD), launched since 1998, focused on improving labor skills based on experience from China and other countries.

The year 2002 witnessed the launch of the Capacity Building for Monitoring and Assessment for Crops in Support of Sustainable Natural Resources Development and Poverty Alleviation.

The Building Marketing Channels for Green and Organic Agriculture Produce as a Tool for Rural Poverty Alleviation was another notable launch.

Li added that these projects have offered practical and remarkable solutions to the concerned countries, and during recent years, the cooperation between China and ESCAP continues to significantly help the most under developed nations.

One case in point would be the Asia-Pacific Information Highway Capacity Building project, which will be completed this year. Many such projects are designed to help the least developed countries and land-locked developing countries to boost their capacity-building abilities in Information Communications Technology (ICT), which is a strong means for helping the poor to increase their living and working opportunities.

"One influential and constructive lesson that China can share with other developing countries is that the Chinese government is not only handing out food, or giving the poor people fish, but it is also giving them a leg up in life, or teaching them how to fish, this is helping the capacity-building development to become self-sustainable in the future," the counsellor explained.

China would work hard to lift 70 million people out of poverty by the end of 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the 2015 Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum in Beijing last October.

This goal has been proposed as part of the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020).

According to the plan, Beijing will help 70 million poor escape poverty so to reach in 2020 the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and to advance the UN's 10-year SDGs.

"Further more, as a responsible developing country, China will continue to provide support to the rest of the world in implementing the SDGs. China will also continue to vigorously advance the Belt& Road Initiative, let the Silk Road Fund and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank play a bigger role, and make its due contribution to global sustainable development," Li concluded. Enditem