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China confirms new human case of bird flu
(Xinhua/China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-07 06:11 "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.
Some foreign governments and international financial organizations have
readjusted their support strategies with regard to China, which has sustained
rapid economic growth amid increasing global competitiveness, Jiang said.
"The reduction or discontinuation of favourable loans from international
organizations has added to (China's) difficulty in using foreign capital to
relieve poverty," he said.
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