China urges acceleration of poverty-reduction efforts

China's envoy called for the international community to speed up global poverty reduction at a United Nations meeting.

All parties need to work to optimize the global development partnership and strive to realize the goal of poverty reduction with "a renewed sense of urgency", said Liu Jieyi, China's ambassador to the UN, at a meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on May 10.

In 2015, the UN Development Summit adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the core objective of eradicating poverty in all its forms throughout the world.

Liu said the international community needs to strengthen cooperation in poverty reduction and development. "The establishment of a new type of international exchanges and cooperation for poverty reduction with win-win cooperation as the core is an important guarantee for poverty eradication," he said.

He also emphasized the need to achieve multifaceted and autonomous sustainable development and improve the international environment for it.

China has made efforts to reduce the rural population living in poverty by more than 700 million. The size of China's rural population living in poverty came down from 166 million in 2010 to 43.35 million by the end of 2016.

In four years, China expects to lift all of its people out of poverty, thus realizing the poverty-reduction goal of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in 2020.

To achieve this goal, China is now engaged in "targeted actions" and "categorized actions", Liu said.

China is willing to work with the international community for the establishment of a community of shared destiny for mankind that is free of poverty and enjoys common development, he said.

In 2015, during his attendance at the UN summits commemorating the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, President Xi Jinping announced a series of major initiatives to help other developing countries develop the economy and improve people's livelihood.

They include establishing an assistance fund for South-South cooperation, increasing investment in the LDCs and providing training in China for 120,000 trainees from other developing countries.

wanglinyan@chinadailyusa.com.cn