On October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, China proudly announced that the poor population in the rural areas of the country decreased to 29 million by the end of 2003 from 250 million in 1978 and the number of people living in poor rural areas reduced to about 3 per cent from 30.7 per dent of the total rural population.

"Hoping the common people have enough to wear and eat" is the better intentions of many people with lofty ideas. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the better intentions have been achieved, which is a marvelous feat in Chinese history as well as in the world's history, and which has won the wide praise and high evaluation from the international society.

Here is a group of figures about the achievements of the poverty alleviation made in China.

-- The number of the poor people has reduced in a big margin. The number of the poor people who have not enough to wear and eat in the rural areas of China fell to 29 million in 2003 from 250 million in 1978. The rural per capita net income in 592 key counties last year was up 5.8 per cent, 1.5 percentage points higher than rural per capita net income of the country. This is the first of its kind since the development of the poverty relief work entered into a new stage.

-- Obvious progress made in the production and living conditions in poor areas. During the 18 years from 1986 to 2003, 26.88 million mu or 1.78 hectares of primary farmland were built while 74.59 million people had their problem of drinking water solved. The proportion of natural villages in the poor areas with access to road, electricity, telephone and radio and TV broadcast reached 71.7, 92.1, 49.1 and 82.7 per cent respectively.

-- All-round progress made in social undertakings. School conditions in the poor areas have been improved obviously. The dropout rate for the school-age children is reduced to 7.8 per cent. And 70.2 per cent of administrative villages are equipped with clinics. A batch of farming technologies was popularized with the improvement of scientific farming.

World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn believes that China is no doubt the country making the greatest contributions to the cause of poverty reduction in the world if taking the reduced number of the poor people as a standard.

The Chinese government has explored a way of poverty-relief in line with Chinese conditions in the great practice of leading the broad masses to eradicate poverty. That is: "government leads the drive of poverty relief based on self-reliance with social participation".

Charitable institutions sponsor the poverty-relief activities in many countries of the world. And in China it is the governments at various levels that do the activities. Since the middle of 1980s, a planned, organized and large-scale poverty-relief project was carried out across the country. In 1994, China worked out "National Program for Poverty Relief". In 2001, China enacted the "Development Outline for the Village Poverty Relief of China (2001-2010)". The special funds for poverty relief by the central government have been increased to 12.2 billion yuan in 2004 from 1 billion yuan in 1980 with total accumulated funds reaching 114.78 billion yuan. Local governments at all levels also offered more than 3 billion yuan of funds for this purpose last year.

In recent years, non-governmental organizations have played a greater role in poverty-relief work. For instance, the "Hope Project" for the pupils in poverty-stricken areas, "Brilliant Undertaking" by private entrepreneurs to support the development of poor areas, "Rehabilitation Poverty Relief" to help the handicapped, "Happy Project" to aid poor mothers, "Spring Buds Program" to finance girls in their compulsory education, "Relay Plan for Supporting Poverty Relief by Young Volunteers", and the ��Self-reliance Project of Poor Rural Households."

Mark Malloch Brown, United Nations Development Program (UNPD Administrator thought that the poverty-relief experience made by China is worth learning. The most valuable development experience China has offered with the world is effective in working out poverty policy.

The poverty-relief modules created by the Chinese government and people have played an active role in improving the effectiveness of using poverty-relief funds and accelerating the poor people reduction. Many of them have become the classical examples for the poverty-relief cause and for other countries to benefit from.

-- Carry out scientific poverty relief. All parts of the country should organize various training classes to support the spread of the advanced agricultural techniques and help the poor masses to develop special farming. Since last year, the key poverty-relief counties have trained 15 million of farmers and village technicians.

-- Arrange labor exports. In recent years, the key counties have annually exported labor totaling about 20 million people with labor income accounting for more than 30 per cent of the farmers.

-- East and west cooperate in poverty relief. In recent years, 15 coastal cities in the east part of China have assisted 11 west provinces and regions. Last year, the east offered the west more than 340 million yuan of financial support and signed 640 industrial cooperative projects with the actual investment of 3.54 billion yuan.

-- Carry out immigration. As for the extremely poor rural households they will be immigrated to other areas on the basis of their willingness with proper subsidies. In recent years, 3.39 million people have been immigrated.

One of the deputy deans of the Asian Development Bank believed being as the biggest developing country in the world with the largest population, China can take more active part in international poverty relief and will push forward the poverty-reducing process of the globe, from which China will benefit.

It is the basic aim for the Chinese government to relieve and eliminate poverty, and achieve the common prosperity of the entire people. The Chinese government has put forward its goal clearly that it will build a well-off society in an all-round way in the first 20 years of 21st Century. To achieve the goal, China will carry forward the process of eliminating poverty with more determination and more powerful measures. This is the solemn promise the Chinese government made toward the Chinese people Meanwhile it is also the fulfillment China made for the 1,000-year development goal of the United Nations.

By People's Daily Online