A senior Chinese delegate to the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund annual meeting said on Saturday that China will join
the international community in the fight against global poverty.
Dai Xianglong, Governor of the ,
said at the sixth meeting of the International Monetary and
Financial Committee that China is still a low-income developing
country with 30 million people living below the poverty line.
While striving to reduce its own poverty with international
support, China will, as always, actively support and participate in
the poverty reduction efforts of the international community, by
providing assistance on both bilateral and multilateral basis
within its capacity, said Dai.
Poverty and unbalanced development are the sources of many
problems, Dai said, adding that only if importance is attached to
resolving these problems can sustained peace and development be
achieved in the world.
Dai said: "we support the Fund's work in poverty reduction, and
urge the Fund to continue its efforts to reduce the debt burden of
the least developed countries."
Developed countries should assume major responsibility in this
process, said Dai. "We hope the Fund and the Bank can further
streamline their procedures and fully respect ownership of
recipient countries, so as to bring the initiatives of the
authorities and people of these countries into full play."
Poverty reduction is an arduous long-term task, said Dai. While
providing financial and technical assistance, the international
community should be fully aware of the constraints faced by the
poor countries in such areas as infrastructure and institutional
capacity, and avoid posing unrealistic requirements on them, he
said.
Unrealistic requirements could hamper progress in poverty reduction
and increase the burden of these poor countries, Dai said.
(Xinhua News
Agency September 29, 2002)