Chen Zhigang: Poverty reduction cooperation promotes China-Africa community of shared future

“China and Africa have long formed a community of shared future. We stand ready to work with our African friends in poverty alleviation and to promote development and construction, upgrade agricultural quality and efficiency, optimize the tertiary industrial structure and improve people’slives,” said Chen Zhigang, vice minister of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOP), at the 2019 FOCAC Africa-China Poverty Reduction and Development Conference held in Kampala, Uganda, on November 28, 2019.

Chen pointed out that China had made great progress in the anti-poverty campaign. “The number of the rural poor dropped from 98.99 million in 2012 to 16.6 million in 2018, with a cumulative decrease of 82.39 million and an annual average of over 13 million.The incidence of poverty decreased by 8.5 percentage points from 10.2 percent to 1.7 percent,” he said.

According to Chen, reform of the rural land system, the household contract responsibility system, development-oriented poverty alleviation policies, goals and strategic planning for poverty alleviation by stages, and the deliberation and coordination mechanism on specific responsibilities in poverty alleviation have all played an important role in poverty reduction in China. Of particular note is the implementation of targeted poverty alleviation. All have offered Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the global cause of poverty reduction.

In terms of China-Africa cooperation in poverty reduction, he said China will enrich the concept of multidimensional poverty governance and help the poor population in more comprehensive ways.

To be of greater benefit to the poor population and help improve their lives, China will grasp the opportunities and favorable conditions for poverty alleviation offered by regional economic and social progress and focus on appropriate economic activities. 

Chen said, China will expand the circle of friends with whom it communicates and cooperates, broaden the space for joint actions in poverty alleviation, disseminate and share knowledge, and try to help other countries to improve their capabilities in poverty alleviation.

He pointed out that solving the historic problem of extreme poverty is a firm commitment on the part ofChina, an important guiding principle in Africa’s Agenda 2063, and Goal 1 in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“We still have a long way to go to promote poverty alleviation and build a global community with a shared future for humanity. China will continue to reduce its domestic poverty and join the international community in continuing and extending poverty reduction,” he said.