China calls for greater world efforts to fight poverty

China on Thursday called upon the international community to make greater anti-poverty efforts, including the creation of an international environment conducive to poverty eradication, the integration of poverty reduction in the overall planning for national economic and social development, and the formation of an international synergy on poverty reduction.

The statement came as Wang Min, the deputy Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, was addressing a session on poverty eradication by the UN Commission for Social Development. The commission on Wednesday kicked off its 10-day meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York.

"At present, with slow global economic recovery, prolonged turmoil in certain regions and continuous natural disasters, many developing countries remain besieged by problems of hunger, disease and poverty," Wang said. "There is still a long way to go and an arduous task ahead before the goal of global poverty reduction can be realized."

The efforts the world should made on the way to poverty eradication were contained in the three proposals raised by the Chinese ambassador.

"First, efforts should be made to create an international environment conducive to poverty eradication," Wang said. "Without a peaceful and stable international environment, there will be no guarantee for economic development and we will be in no position to talk about poverty eradication."

"All countries should actively safeguard world peace and stability, respect each other politically, strive for economic equality and mutual benefits, and move the global economy towards a balanced and win-win direction that will benefit all," he said. "In particular, we should respect all countries in their choice of development path and modality suitable for their own national conditions and all peoples should be guaranteed equal access to development opportunities."

"Second, poverty reduction should be included in the overall planning for national economic and social development," Wang said. "All countries should view poverty eradication from a wider perspective."

Poverty reduction is not a burden to economic and social development but a driving force behind social stability and sustainable development, he said. "Against the backdrop of international financial crisis, all countries should work hard to resume economic growth and maintain macro-economic stability, while taking into full account the social effect resulting from economic policies so as to handle properly the issues of income and distribution of public resources."

"We should actively expand employment, improve social protection, protect vulnerable groups and vigorously safeguard the hard-won outcome of poverty reduction," he said.

"Third, efforts should be made to form an international synergy on poverty reduction," he said. "The international community should make poverty eradication a priority area in development cooperation and explore new measures to be taken by multilateral agencies to support global poverty reduction."

The UN, the World Bank and other international organizations should shoulder their responsibilities and mobilize and organize all forces to move forward the international cause of poverty reduction," he said.

"Developed countries should truly honor their aid commitment, abandon trade protectionism, speed up transfer of technology and help developing countries, in particular the LDCs (least developed countries)， to accelerate their development," he said. "Developing countries should formulate poverty reduction strategies suitable for their own characteristics, strengthen South-South cooperation and promote joint development."

In his report to the UN commission, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon spoke highly of China's efforts to fight against poverty.

"As stated in the secretary general's report, China, in its own efforts, has made contributions to the global cause of poverty reduction," he said. "Indeed, as a country with the largest population, China is also the first developing country to realize, ahead of schedule, the MDGs in the area of poverty reduction."

After more than 30 years of reform and opening up, there has been a drastic reduction in the number of people living in poverty in China, Wang said. "The fundamental reason for that achievement lies in the fact that China has found a path to poverty reduction in accordance with its own national conditions and has included poverty reduction in the overall planning for its national development."