China's Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the opening ceremony of
the Global Conference on Scaling Up Poverty Reduction, to be held
in Shanghai from May 26 to 27, according to the conference's
organizing committee.
Shanghai has made full preparations on security, medical
service, transportation, reception and press service to ensure
success of the conference, and everything is ready, said a
spokesman for the committee.
Minister of Finance Jin Renqing, also the Chinese chairman of
the conference, visited the Shanghai International Conference
Center, where the conference is to be held, on Sunday and asked the
staff members to provide best service for the conference.
Sponsored by the World Bank and the Chinese government, the
three-day event has attracted more than 800 domestic and foreign
participants, including leaders of foreign countries,
representatives of international organizations and officials at
ministerial level.
The conference, first of its kind, is aimed to accelerate
efforts in reducing poverty through assessing best practices and
sharing valuable knowledge among developing countries.
Developing country practitioners and policymakers from around
the world will analyze over 70 cases of poverty reduction and
illustrate successful and not so successful examples.
The cases provide high visibility to approaches that really
worked in reducing poverty on a large scale within various
economic, social, and institutional contexts. The conference has
aroused great attention of the press. Over 500 Chinese and foreign
journalists will cover the conference.
Jemal-ud-din Kassum, vice president of the World Bank, said
Shanghai has rich experience and full capacity to hold large-scale
international meetings and that he is very confident of the success
of the conference.
(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2004)