China will strengthen cooperation with the UN International Fund
for Agriculture Development (IFAD) to reduce global poverty, a
senior Chinese official said on Wednesday.
Addressing the 29th Session of the Governing Council of IFAD,
Chinese Vice Finance Minister Li Yong said that in the past two
decades, China had been effectively cooperating with the Rome-based
IFAD, from which hundreds of thousands of poor farmers have
benefited.
He said China will pledge US$16 million to the 7th funding
increase of IFAD resources, an increase of 52.4 percent over
China's last contribution to IFAD, whose aim is to reduce global
poverty.
He added that China has made significant steps in poverty
reduction, but that the successes can only be viewed as initial
results.
"Because China is still confronted with new challenges in
fighting against absolute rural poverty, mostly in central and
western China, where the ecological environments are extremely
harsh and the pace of poverty reduction is slowing down," he
said.
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"China has no other alternative but to make long-term, arduous
and relentless efforts to eliminate its poverty, and China still
needs assistance and support from the international community," he
said.
He also called on the international community to make relentless
efforts in seeking a more consistent strategy for global poverty
reduction.
"Achieving common prosperity through common development is a
perpetual subject of today's world," Li said.
According to IFAD, which is charged with directly addressing
rural poverty by increasing food production and increasing farmers'
incomes, 1.2 billion people worldwide live in extreme poverty on
less then US$1 a day.
The number is expected to rise to two billion by 2015 if current
trends continue.
(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2006)
