Poverty relief drive needs international funds

    Leading poverty reduction officials yesterday said China appreciates, and will continue to look for, foreign funds to help improve the lives of the country's poor.

    "We won't forget the active support of international organizations and countries concerned about China's poverty-reduction undertakings, and NGOs and philanthropists who have helped in China's poverty-relief achievements," said Liu Jian, the country's top poverty relief official.

    The government hopes to strengthen international co-operation to cope with a range of new scenarios and problems in the fight against destitution, the chief of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development said yesterday.

    Liu made the remarks at a seminar in Beijing to mark the role foreign capital has played in China's poverty reduction over the past 10 years.

    Since 1995, the Foreign Capital Project Management Centre under Liu's office has overseen implementation of projects involving foreign funds of more than US$800 million, centre Director Jiang Xiaohua said.

    Between 1981 and 2002, loans from international financial organizations for poverty relief in China approached US$8 billion, according to official statistics.

    Along with domestic efforts, foreign aid has helped reduce the number of rural residents living in abject poverty from 65 million in 1995 to 26.1 million in 2004, by which time 95 per cent of the 592 State-designated poor counties had roads, electricity and telephones, said Liu.

    In addition to accelerating the poverty relief process and improving the poverty situation in China, foreign-funded projects have also brought new development concepts to China, and paved the way for sustainable development of the targeted regions through training and participation of poor people, Jiang said.

    While international development organizations are continually prioritizing poverty eradication, support from rich countries to aid poor ones has been declining, despite the repeated commitment of the world's governments to contribute 0.7 per cent of their gross national product to official development assistance, Jiang said.

    Meanwhile, unfair global trade rules have enlarged the wealth gap, he said.