UK academics have described President Xi Jinping’s vision for alleviating poverty, which he delivered at the Boao Forum for Asia, as “a worthy aim”.

During the conference in South China’s Hainan province, Xi said: “The Chinese people have emerged from a life of shortages and poverty and are now enjoying abundant supply and a moderately prosperous life.”

When the president launched his poverty-reduction campaign in 2015, he said there were still more than 70 million people living in poverty in China. This week, Xi vowed to end extreme poverty by 2020.

China’s leader also noted that, according to a UN report, more than 700 million Chinese people were lifted out of poverty from 1978 to 2014, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total.

Chris Rowley, an Asia expert and professor at the University of Oxford’s Kellogg College, said the aim of ending extreme poverty is a worthy one but, given China’s massive and rapid economic development and growth since the 1980s, not something that is unexpected.

“Also of importance are access to things like electricity and equality, where there are yawning gaps between the ‘haves and have nots’,” Rowley said. “It may be expected that wealth will trickle down to all and reduce poverty, but of importance is equality and inclusiveness between and within ethnic groups, regions, rural-urban areas.”

Julian Beer, deputy vice-chancellor at Birmingham City University, said Xi’s speech “builds upon earlier commitments for greater market liberalization with tangible statements about seeking to enter the WTO Government Procurement Agreement” that he said “can only be seen as positive”.

He added that the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November will be “a significant opportunity for the British government and British businesses to showcase in an imminent post-Brexit environment the best of British goods and services”.

Beer noted that the creative industries and arts will benefit from strong Sino-UK relations in addition to the manufacturing industry.

“The combined prowess of British and Chinese intellectual property and design working in tandem to shape and influence both culture and industry could be very powerful and I hope these opportunities are seized,” he said.