Second commentary on "Declaration on World Economic Development"
By Hu Angang, Professor of Tsinghua University
It is pointed out in the "Declaration on World Economic Development" (Zhuhai Declaration): the daily growing revenue and wealth should be fairly and equitably distributed among and within countries and serve the entire world people (irrespective of sex, race, culture and religious belief); developed countries should help developing countries to develop their capabilities, which will help to eliminate poverty, improve the North-South relations and promote the common prosperity for people of all countries in the world.
1. Poverty is a tremendous challenge to the human development in the 21st century
The Zhuhai Declaration is a continuation of the Millennium Declaration issued by the United Nations Millennium Summit Conference held in September 2000. Both the Zhuhai Declaration and the Millennium Declaration stated that the international development objectives for the 21st century is to realize the most generous aspiration of mankind - to build a world free from poverty and free from sufferings brought along by poverty. This comprises seven major objectives: from 1990 to 2015, dire poverty population will be reduced by 50 percent; by 2015, children of school age will go to primary schools; by 2005, by eliminating sexual discrimination in entering primary and high schools, progress will be made in equality between men and women and in acquiring rights by women; from 1990 to 2015, the infant and children mortality will drop 2/3; from 1990 to 2015, the maternal mortality will drop 3/4; by 2015, the reproductive health service will be provided to all those who need it; and by 2015, the strategy for national sustainable development will be implemented, thus bringing about a change by 2015 in the situation of environmental resources being subjected to damage.
To reduce poverty has always been a great ideal of mankind to pursue social righteousness, social fairness and social equality. However, up to the 21st century, poverty still exists extensively in many places of the world. Though the accumulation of wealth of mankind has increased many times (according to the calculation by Angus Maddison, an OECD economist, at the rate of the US dollars in 1990, the global GDP for 2001 was 6.9 times that of 1950) and science and technology have advanced at an alarming speed, this has not enabled all countries, especially developing countries, to receive benefits generally. The North-South gap has widened increasingly (according to the calculation by Maddison, the relative gap in the per capita GDP between Western countries and other countries in 1950 was 5.2 times, and it increased to 6.8 times in 2001, of which the relative gap between Western countries and African countries increased from 6.6 times to 16.2 times). Although the global poverty-stricken population reduced by 123 million (mainly because China reduced poverty-stricken population by 151 million) in the nineties (from 1990 to 1999), there were still 1169 million people with living expenses per person per day being less than one US dollar, accounting for 23.2 percent of the total world population (see Table 1), and 2,802 million people with living expenses per person per day being less than two US dollars, accounting for 57.5 percent of the total world population (see Table 2). The task of mankind to eliminate poverty is still arduous and the road ahead is long. Though all countries at the UN Millennium Summit Conference set the task for the first stage, the situation of poverty has kept on aggravating and the wide gap between the rich and the poor has kept on widening, posing a direct threat to the equality, stability and sustainable development of all countries in the world. Mankind is faced with a tremendous challenge in fulfilling the task set by the Millennium Summit Conference. The Zhuhai Declaration stressed further that to eliminate poverty is still a pressing demand of the contemporary world, especially of developing countries.
2.China has made significant contributions to the human development and the elimination of poverty
In the past 20 years or more, China has made vigorous efforts to eliminate poverty and scored great achievements that have caught worldwide attention. It is calculated according to the national poverty line set by the Chinese authorities that the poverty-stricken population in the rural areas has decreased from 250 million in 1978 to 28.20 million in 2002, and the proportion of the poverty-stricken population in the rural areas has dropped from 31.6 percent to 3.5 percent. Even if the 58.25 million low-income farming population is considered, the rural poverty-stricken population is 86.45 million in total, accounting for 11.0 percent of the total rural population. Calculated according to the international poverty line set by the World Bank, i.e. the living expenses per person per day are less than 1 US dollar, the poverty-stricken population in China has decreased from 490 million in 1981 to 88 million in 2002 and the proportion of the poverty-stricken population has dropped from 49 percent to 6.9 percent. No matter what criteria are employed, the number of the poverty-stricken population in China has been reduced drastically and the proportion of the poverty-stricken population has declined markedly.
This is the contribution made by China to the development of all mankind and the elimination of poverty. According to the latest report of the United Nations Development Programme, starting from 1990, the East Asian and Pacific region represented by China has almost reduced the absolute poverty population by half, and significant progress has been made in other "millennium development goals". According to the latest statistics of the Work Bank, in 1990-1999, the poverty-stricken population in the whole world with per capita daily living expenses being less than US$1 decreased US$123 million, while in China the poverty-stricken population decreased 151 million, accounting for 40 percent of the total (see Table 1). If China was excluded, the poverty-stricken population in the world increased by 28 million over the past 10 years. In the same period, the poverty-stricken population in the world with per capita daily living expenses being less than two US dollars increased 90 million, while in China decreased 191 million, accounting for 23 percent of the total (see Table 2). If China was excluded, the poverty-stricken population increased 281 million. Just as what the President of the World Bank James D. Wolfensohn said in his lecture delivered at Beijing University on May 29, 2002, China has made an achievement in the reduction of poverty unparalleled in the world, of which China should feel proud.
3. Acquiring a new correct understanding of poverty in the 21st century
What is poverty? Armatya K. Sen，Professor of economics and winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize on Economics, held that poverty should be defined from concept as shortage of capability instead of low income. The UNDP is of the view that poverty is far from the question of inadequate income (income poverty). On the contrary, poverty is, in essence, the exclusion of the most elementary opportunities and options needed for human development. It is precisely these opportunities and options that lead people to a long, healthy and creative life, enabling people to enjoy an honourable life, freedom, self-respect and respect by others.
Poverty is a multi-latitude phenomenon. We have classified poverty into income poverty, human poverty and knowledge poverty. Income poverty means a shortage of the lowest level of adequate income or expenses. Extreme poverty is also a kind of income poverty, generally referring to inability to satisfy the lowest demand for food. Absolute poverty is defined by the criteria of the international poverty line set by the World Bank, for instance, the living expenses per person per day are less than one US dollar (the average price of purchasing power calculated according to the price of the US dollar in 1985), which is used to compare the degree of poverty in different countries. Different countries have different national poverty lines. For example, the poverty line for the rural areas in China is equivalent to about 60 percent of the international poverty line, which is called the dire poverty line (Khan, 1999).
Human poverty means shortage of elementary capabilities of man, for example, illiteracy, malnutrition, shortage of hygienic conditions, short life span, etc. Human poverty is conspicuous in the South Asian region: half of the children under five suffer from malnutrition, 35 percent of children in primary schools do not finish schooling up to grade five and almost 2/3 of women are illiterate. In the African countries south of the Sahara, the life expectance for about 30 percent of the population is less than 40 years of age (the Aids has greatly lowered the health level), more than half of women are illiterate and about 30 percent of children have never finished schooling up to grade five of primary school.
Knowledge poverty is defined by us to mean people's general shortage of the capability to acquire, exchange, utilize and create knowledge and information, or shortage of rights, opportunities and channels to acquire the capability. The poverty-stricken population not only has low income and lacks of the capability for human development, but also are short of intellectual property and the capability to acquire knowledge and information. In our opinion, knowledge poverty is a new kind of poverty appearing at a time when mankind has entered the knowledge society in the 21st century.
There exist cause and effect among the above-mentioned three kinds of poverty: income poverty leads to human poverty and knowledge poverty; and human poverty and knowledge poverty are major root causes for income poverty; and the poverty-stricken population is not only insufficient in income, but also insufficient in the capability for human development and seriously insufficient in intellectual property. The new comprehensive anti-poverty strategy of mankind for the 21st century should shift from the elimination of poverty in a narrow sense to the elimination of the three kinds of poverty extensively and enduringly, and elimination of human poverty and knowledge poverty will greatly reduce income poverty. The framework of the new comprehensive anti-poverty strategy for the 21st century should take the enhancement of the development capability of man (particularly the poverty-stricken population) as the key, the guarantee for the basic rights of the poverty-stricken population and the increase of various development opportunities as the premise, the high-quality economic growth as the basis and the good governance and systems as the safeguard.
It was pointed out clearly in the 16th CPC National Congress that China's most important development objective for the next 20 years is to build a well-off society of a higher standard in an all-round way to the benefit of well over one billion people, making it possible to further develop the economy, improve democracy, advance science and education, enrich culture, foster social harmony and upgrade the quality of life for the people. By 2020, the total population in China may reach 1.44 billion, the aggregate of the economy will be quadrupled compared with that of the year 2000, the financial revenue will grow by a large margin, the overall national strength and the international competitiveness will increase markedly, the income of residents will be raised obviously, people will lead a more prosperous life, the country and society will have enhanced capabilities to further reduce the poverty-stricken population in the urban and rural areas and eliminate all phenomena of poverty.
China's future five major anti-poverty objectives are: (1) To further raise the per capita income of poverty-stricken farmers. By 2010, the per capita income will be raised by 60-65 percent, thoroughly eliminate the poverty-stricken population by the national poverty line standards, i.e. dire poverty population, and eliminate by a large margin the poverty-stricken population by the international poverty line standards, at least over 2/3. (2) To ensure that the poverty-stricken farmers solve the food problem and guarantee their demand for consuming basic food stuffs. (3) To create more employment opportunities for the poverty-stricken population in the urban and rural areas and clear away institutional obstacles that impede the flow of labour forces. (4) To step up the investment in the capital of the manpower of the poverty-stricken population, provide basic public service, provide conditions for acquiring knowledge, absorbing knowledge and utilizing knowledge, increase opportunities for their development, and fundamentally enhance the development capability of the poverty-stricken population. (5) To carry out the objective of protecting the ecological environment and building infrastructural facilities. I wish that the issuing of the Zhuhai Declaration will be conducive to smooth attainment of China's future five major anti-poverty objectives.
(China.org.cn November 6, 2003)
