国内英语新闻:China Focus: China's poverty alleviation efforts lauded at int'l seminar

FUZHOU, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's efforts and achievements in poverty alleviation have been widely applauded by international participants of a seminar that opened Monday in Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province.

"China's success in fighting poverty is the result of continued political commitment and effective policies since its reform and opening up," said Beate Trankmann, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in China, at the International Seminar on Poverty Eradication and Responsibility of Political Parties.

"Over the past 40 years, China has lifted more than 750 million people out of poverty, which is about 80 percent of all people brought out of poverty worldwide in that time," Trankmann said, speaking via video link.

She said that, since the UNDP introduced the Human Development Index in 1990, China was the first country to move from the low development category to the high category in 2010, and one of a few nations to achieve this.

"These achievements are commendable," she said.

The seminar, co-hosted by the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, was attended -- both online and offline -- by nearly 400 participants from more than 100 countries, including representatives of political parties, diplomatic envoys to China, and representatives of international organizations in China.

China is expected to eliminate absolute poverty by the end of this year, 10 years earlier than the deadline set by the United Nations (UN) in its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

"To lift people from abject poverty and have the possibility of living in relative affluence, as has happened in China, is uNPRecedented in the history of mankind," said Raphael Tuju, secretary general of Kenya's ruling Jubilee Party.

Tuju said that China's accomplishment is due to the consistent leadership of the CPC and its vision, which transcends a single generation. The Jubilee Party takes the CPC as an example and is inspired by its achievements in poverty relief, according to Tuju.

Tiong King Sing, president of the Progressive Democratic Party of Malaysia and the Malaysian prime minister's special envoy to China, also praised China's experience and wisdom in alleviating poverty. "China will become a model for other countries in their respective struggles to reduce poverty," he said.

The global spread of COVID-19 has brought new challenges to poverty relief worldwide.

Muhaimin Iskandar, general chairman of the National Awakening Party and deputy speaker of the People's Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia, pointed out that, in the midst of a severe pandemic, political parties should begin to rethink their responsibilities in eradicating poverty. Political parties should play the leading role in making policies to help people escape poverty and realize social justice, he said.

Representatives at the seminar agreed that political parties and other public institutions all over the world should strengthen cooperation to eradicate poverty worldwide, especially amid the current pandemic.

"As political parties, we have the responsibility and confidence to join hands and strive together to achieve the noble objectives of rejuvenating human society and build a better world for all," said Elias Magashule, secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa.

Magashule highlighted that the ANC fully agrees with the CPC on poverty alleviation and sustainable development issues, and it is in this context that the ANC joins the calls by the progressive movements of the world to strengthen solidarity and internationalism to find common solutions for the eradication of poverty and other global challenges confronting humanity.

"No political party should exist unless the purpose of that political party is to ensure that they can work for the prosperity of its population," said Kenya's Tuju.