Global experts discuss poverty goals at Shanghai symposium

Senior economists and sociologists converged in Shanghai on Thursday for a symposium to discuss poverty alleviation and global inequality.

Twenty-four academics from China as well as nations in South Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America discussed the results of recent campaigns worldwide and how to achieve the UN's goal for eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.

The two-day symposium, themed "No One Left Behind", was organized by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economy.

Quan Heng, the institute's director, said poverty in China had fallen at the fastest rate in human history.

He cited World Bank statistics that show the rural population below the poverty line had dropped from 770 million in 1978 to just 55.75 million in 2015.

"The country has contributed more than 70 percent in world poverty reduction in the past 35 years," he said.

One highlight of China's targeted poverty alleviation efforts has been encouraging families to make good use of the boom in e-commerce to sell specialty products online, Quan added.

However, Wan Guanghua, a professor with Fudan University's Institute of World Economy, warned that inequality has risen in the country in the past three decades.

"The urban-rural divide contributes to more than 30 percent of national inequality," he said.