Poverty alleviation to continue astonishing progress

Poverty alleviation in China will see greater progress as efforts from various sectors to boost consumption of goods and services from rural areas bear fruit and COVID-19 containment efforts have paid off, experts say.

"During the whole nation's fight against poverty, the targeted and intensive measures implemented across the nation have made a great difference," said Guo Lanfeng, director-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a forum focusing on poverty alleviation in Yan'an, Shaanxi province on Thursday.

The forum, titled China Forum for Consumption and Poverty Alleviation, was held by the commission's China Center for Urban Development to exchange experiences and showcase successful cases during the poverty alleviation fight in China, which aims to eliminate absolute poverty in rural areas by the end of the year.

"Efforts from government, enterprises and the whole society to boost the integration of consumption, logistics and production are well displayed during the nation's fight against the poverty amid COVID-19 headwinds, and have made big progress during the period," Guo added.

According to the NDRC, all government units across the nation have directly purchased agricultural products worth 22 billion yuan ($3.25 billion) from poverty-stricken areas in the first half of this year, and helped farmers in the areas sell more than 200 billion yuan of products.

The innovation in retailing, innovation of online technologies and targeted measures are key factors leading to the success of the poverty alleviation battle, and will have a bigger role in supporting the nation's "dual circulation" development pattern, in which domestic and external demands will complement each other and offer vast opportunities for businesses around the world, experts said during the forum.

According to a report unveiled during the forum, in China, the world's fastest-growing e-commerce market and home to more than 40 percent of global e-commerce transactions, digital technology is being increasingly adopted to carry out economic and social activities and is profoundly transforming production patterns and people's lifestyles. In China, e-commerce, digitally inclusive finance and poverty alleviation programs supported by big data have had positive effects on poverty reduction.

In addition, online methods such as livestreaming retail are promoting growth in incomes and capacity-building for sellers in poverty-stricken areas. Many poor people have benefited from the booming sector.

For example, the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration Project has helped nearly 3 million registered impoverished households realize income growth. In 2019, online retail sales in 832 poverty-stricken counties reached 107.6 billion yuan ($15.7 billion).