Forum to end poverty looks to China's example

About 80 professionals from government, academia, business, non-governmental organizations and international organizations gathered in Beijing for the 2016 China Poverty Reduction International Forum on Sunday to discuss the use of South-South and Triangular Cooperation initiatives to eradicate poverty.

The forum, themed "China's Poverty Reduction Experience Sharing under the SDGs (sustainable development goal) Framework", mainly focused on how China's success in poverty reduction could be shared and applied to other contexts.

China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty in the past 30 years, about 70 percent of those brought out of poverty worldwide.

China's top leaders announced the decision to win the battle against poverty last year, promising to take "extraordinary measures" to lift over 55 million rural people out of poverty in the next five years.

Niels Knudsen, assistant country director of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) China and team leader for South-South Cooperation, said China has made great examples in the past to eliminate poverty. Many regions, such as some countries in Africa, could use China's successful models, such as expanding economic zones and reforming public administration.

"One of the benefits of e-commerce companies contributing to poverty elimination is to allow people from rural areas to adopt technical skills to start or expand their traditional business," said Zhang Ruidong, senior expert at the research institute from e-commerce giant Alibaba group.

As the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development states, the goal is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030 for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.

China is committed to supporting the agenda and taking responsibility to tackle the problem.

The forum was co-hosted by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) and the China Internet Information Center (CIIC) and organized by China.org.cn, China Development Gateway (CnDG) and Ada Tech (Beijing) Co Ltd.

The Global Poverty Reduction & Inclusive Growth Portal (GPIG) was also launched at the forum, aiming to become a platform to share poverty reduction knowledge and best practices in China and around the world. It will offer information such as poverty reduction news, events and experts' opinions, as well as the latest cases and research to help officials, experts and the public to learn more about poverty and related issues.

Initiated by the World Bank and supported by the Asian Development Bank, the website is operated by IPRCC and CnDG. Think tanks from Asia, Africa and the Americas are also invited to contribute their knowledge and experience.