keynote speech at international conference on taking action for the world’s poor and hungry people...

Keynote Speech at International Conference on Taking Action for the World’s Poor and Hungry People

Review and Outlook of Poverty Alleviation and Development in China

Fan XiaojianDirector and Deputy Group Leader of the State Council Leading Gro

up Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development

Oct 17 2007, Beijing China

Contents

I. Major Achievements and Contribution made by Poverty Alleviation for Development in China

II. Policy Options in Different Stages of Poverty Alleviation

III. Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation Program with Chinese Characteristics

IV. Challenges and Prospects

Foreword 　　

Since the founding of new China 58 years ago, especially since reform

and opening up carried out 30 years ago, China has made tremendous

progress in poverty alleviation in China. The progress we have made is the

result of a sustained economic growth, a series of development policies for

social equity and special programs for poverty alleviation taken by the

Government. The fundamental experience is that the Chinese Government

has adopted and formulated a series of strategies and policies which have

suited for our national conditions in poverty alleviation in different

development periods.


Size of rural poor population and poverty incidence in China from 1978 to 2006

1. Substantive reduction of the rural poor population

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5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

1978

1980

1981

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1989

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1991

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1998

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2001

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2006

年份

贫困

人口

规模

（万

人）

0

5

10

15

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25

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35

贫困

发生

率（%

）

rural abj ect poorpopul ati on (10000)rural l ow- i ncome poorpopul ati on (10000)i nci dence of rural abj ectpoverty (%)i nci dence of rural l ow-i ncome poverty (%)

2. All social undertakings in the poor regions achieved remarkable progress. Infrastructures in the poor regions have been greatly improved, and human spirit in poor areas has gone through fundamental changes.

3. Remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation and development promoted political stability, social equity, national unity and border consolidation, thus becoming important factor to ensure an enduring social order.


4. Poverty alleviation and development in China also made positive contribution to the world poverty reduction.

Distribution of poor population living with less than 1 USD per day in 2000

From: World Resources Institute, 2006

Distribution of poor population living with less than 1 USD per day 1981—1995

From: the World Bank website站


Stage 1: broad-sense poverty alleviation in the planned economic system (1949-1977)


1. Background: planned economic system established; rural cooperative movement and people’s communes mobilized; capital for industrial development accumulated through system arrangement including collective ownership of major agricultural production materials such as land, mandatory low-price purchase of agriculture products, and even distribution.

2. Strategic measures to raise rural productivity ★ launch large-scale infrastructure construction ★ establishing agri-technology extension service network basically covering the whole country ★ setting up national rural cooperative credit system ★ pushing forward rapid development of rural fundamental education and basic medical care ★ preliminarily setting up rural social security system with focus on community’s “Wubao” of five quarantine system and assistance to rural extremely poor people.

Stage II: large-scale poverty mitigation driven by system reform (1978-1985)

1. Background: China started the transformation from planned economy to market economy. The rural areas took the lead in reform and opening up to the outside world.

2. Policy measures to facilitate poverty alleviation

★ Establish household contract responsibility system, reform rural distribution system, and introduce market orientation into the price formation and distribution mechanism for agricultural products.

★ Vigorously develop urban and township enterprises.

★ Promote transfer of rural redundant labors to non-agricultural industries.


★ Mobilize earmarked strategies on poverty alleviation and development

1980 - Established the “Development Fund for the Assistance to Economically Underdeveloped Regions”

1982 – Launched agricultural development project for Sanxi Region, which consists of Dingxi Region and Hexi Region of Gansu Province, and Xihaigu Region of Ningxia Autonomous Region

1984 - Started the food for work projects which supply goods in kind, and built infrastructures in poverty stricken areas

1984 - Defined 18 poverty stricken zones as key areas in poverty alleviation programs.


Stage II: large-scale poverty mitigation driven by system reform (1978-1985)

This period was the most effective one in the poverty alleviation history in China – rural extremely poor population dropped from 250 million to 125 million, with average reduction of 17.86 million year on year. Poverty incidence went down from 30.7% to 14.8%, averaging 9.4% annually.

Stage III: development-oriented poverty alleviation targeting at specific areas (1986 - 2000)


1. Background: with rolling out market-oriented economic reform, disparity between middle west areas and coastal areas in the east increased gradually, and the rural economic growth and the improvement of farmers’ living conditions in areas of unfavorable conditions slowed down.

2. Strategic measures on poverty alleviation1). Roll out earmarked strategies on rural poverty alleviation, and implement the planned, organized and large-scale poverty alleviation and development programs ★ Establish specific institutions ★ Formulate the strategy of development-oriented poverty alleviation ★ Define poverty standard and key supporting areas ★ Continue to implement policies of financial assistance like “Development Fund for the Assistance to Economically Underdeveloped Area”, “Food for Work Project”, “Sanxi Development” and etc ★ Reduce poverty through favorable credit policies


Stage III: development-oriented poverty alleviation targeting at specific areas (1986 - 2000)

★ Implement the “National Eight-Seven Poverty Alleviation Plan” since 1993By 2000, the rural poor population was reduced to 32 million and the poverty incidence decreased to around 3%. Poverty also changed from a widespread phenomenon to the spot phenomenon, the incidence of which showed the pattern of “spot, line and area”, and the type of poverty has changed from absolute poverty to relative poverty.

2). Emergence of urban poverty and responsive measures ★ Background: due to industrial restructuring, transformation of employment

system, and reform of distribution system and social welfare system, social differentiation deepened, the income disparity increased, and urban poverty became a prominent issue.

★ Responsive measures: roughly established the fundamental framework of urban social security system; promote reemployment of laid-off workers and increase job opportunities

Stage IV: poverty alleviation for development in the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way. (from 2001 on)


Poverty alleviation measures:

1. Implemented the China Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Pr

ogram (2001-2010)Promptly address food and clothing needs of the remaining poor population; furth

er improve the production and living conditions of poverty stricken areas, and rei

nforce the poverty reduction achievements.

Village-based program Industrialization orientation Training for labor transfer

By 2006, the number of people living in absolute poverty has fallen to 21.48 million, and poverty incidence dropped to 2.3%.

2. A complete anti-poverty policy system encompassing development-oriented poverty alleviation programs, disaster relief, “five guarantees” scheme and “subsistence allowance” scheme was established.

3. Development-oriented, preventive and relief-oriented anti-poverty policy system for urban areas has also been improved gradually.


Stage IV: poverty alleviation for development in the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way. (from 2001 on)


Ideological emancipation, structural reform, institutional innovation and

policy support running through the entire reform program have brought along

sustained and rapid economic growth, which have created a favorable

macro-environment for large-scale poverty reduction. In this process, the

Government of China clearly recognized that market can not benefit all the

people automatically while the economic growth and the generalized

preferential policy measures cannot solve all the poverty-related problems.

Therefore, we carried out a special poverty alleviation program targeted on

poor population, which is a development-oriented poverty alleviation

program in line with the context of China. The core of this program is

government leadership, public participation, self-reliance, development-

oriented poverty alleviation and all-round growth.

1. Government leadership

Poverty alleviation institutions at all levels


1. Integrate poverty alleviation and development into national economic and social development plans2. Set up and improve governing structure should at both central and local level, and consolidate relevant responsibilities of governments at all levels3. Increase capital input continuously4. Formulate pro-poor policies5. Mobilize all social sectors to participate in poverty alleviation

2. Public participation1). 6 provinces in East China, 3 municipalities directly under the Central Government and 6 municipalities with independent budgetary status were assigned to help reduce poverty in 11 western poor provinces.


2). 272 government and Party agencies at central level and large state-owned enterprises were assigned to help reduce poverty in 481 key poverty-stricken counties.

3. All social sectors should be mobilized to participate in poverty alleviation.


2. Public participation4. We hope to promote the cooperation with international organizations, bilateral agencies and international non-governmental organizations to jointly carry out poverty alleviation activities.

3. Self-reliance


1. Change outdated concepts of the poor farmers2. Entitle the poor farmers rights to participate3. Promote capacity building of the poor farmers4. Facilitate self-governance of villagers through poverty alleviation and development activities

　 4. Development-oriented poverty alleviation

1. Help poor villages develop infrastructure for access to road, electricity, mail, radio and television.


2. Improve land productivity of poor farmers by developing farmland water conservancy projects.

5. Develop large-scale labor transfer and voluntary relocation of farmers and creating job and development opportunities.


3. Support poor farmers in developing crop production, animal production and small-scale processing projects.

4. Organize diversified vocational and technical trainings to introduce new agricultural technology and practices.

　 4. Development-oriented poverty alleviation

5. All-round development


1. Popularize 9-year compulsory education, and basically eliminate illiteracy

among adults;

2. Provide free textbooks and exempting extra charges for all the students from

poor rural families in the central and western regions in the primary and

secondary schools, and subsidize living expenses for the poor in boarding

schools;

3. Gradually set up a new type of rural cooperative medical care system;

4. Actively urge poor rural families to have fewer children and get rich as soon

as possible;

5. Convert farmland for forestry and carry out other large-scale projects;

6. Establish the rural minimum cost of living allowance system.

1. Huge poor population and entrenched poverty;

2. Development in poor areas still lagging behind;

3. Increasing factors leading to poverty, with unabated recurrence of poverty;

4. Unbalanced socio-economic development; development of public service

and social security system falling behind; conflict between natural ecology

and economic development being prominent; implementation system of

social development and poverty alleviation policy to be improved and the

efficiency of poverty reduction to be enhanced immediately.


1. Challenges

1). Objectives and priorities of development-oriented poverty alleviation in

the next three years

provide sufficient food and shelter to rural poor; try to accomplish the village-

based poverty alleviation plan; provide the access to television in administrative

villages, access to highway in places where conditions permit, access to

electricity in natural villages; further improve drinking water supply for human

and animals and improve medical care system, popularize the nine-year

compulsory education in an all-round way. Based on the new characteristics

and development of poverty as well as the requirement of scientific

development concept and building a harmonious society, new poverty

alleviation plan will be formulated in line with local conditions and new policy

measures will be adopted.


2. Prospects

2). Favorable macro-environment and sound development basis for poverty alleviation in the forthcoming period

★ Promote sustained and rapid development of national economy; ★ Constantly improve social security and assistance system; ★ Achieve more harmonious development of economy and nature; ★ Build modern agriculture following a guidance of “industry promoting

agriculture, urban areas promoting rural areas” ; ★ Improve physical conditions for rural development and increase farmers’ in

come; ★ Develop rural social undertakings, and bring up new type of farmers; ★ Gradually realize a coordinated socio-economic development in urban and

rural areas.


2. Prospects

3). Drive forth poverty alleviation and development steadily

★ Persist in development-oriented poverty alleviation, and

integrate development with security

★ Innovate mechanism, pool resources and increase investment

in poverty alleviation

★ Improve fund management and enhance investment efficiency

★ Address food and shelter needs of poor people, improve

people’s income and self-development capacity, and let the poor

people benefit from the achievements of reform and development.

4). Continue to actively participate in the global poverty

alleviation course.


2. Prospects

Thank you!

keynote speech at international conference on taking action for the world’s poor and hungry people...

Documents

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poverty incidence

world poverty reduction

industrial development

rapid development of

beijing china

series of development

different development