How China is alleviating rural poverty
China is employing E-commerce to alleviate poverty among its rural farmers by improving their income.
With its broadband coverage rate of 80.8 per cent, it has established an online shopping mall for its farmers creating a ready market for their produce.
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An Associate Professor of the China International Poverty Alleviation Centre, Dr Xu Liping, on Thursday told journalists at the 2018 seminar in China for renowned commentators and columnists of major media organisations in African countries.
Dr Liping who was giving a lecture on “Rural poverty reduction in China, Policy and Practice at the three-week seminar which began on Wednesday said the poverty alleviation initiative in China has been successful.
She said some of the farmers had through training developed their produce and goods for the online market and had acquired QS certification for them in addition to registering their trademarks.
Rural residents also have a medical insurance coverage of 97 per cent and have access to electricity, potable water, housing and food.
Among china’s achievements, is the reduction of under-five child mortality rate from 61 per cent in 1991 to 12 per cent in 2013.
By 2015, 96.1 per cent of all roads were made from cement and impoverished areas had a 100 per cent access to telephones, and electricity.
China now aims at eliminating absolute poverty for some 55.75 million rural poor by 2020.
Dr Liping observed that the Chinese culture of depending on themselves through hard work was a catalyst in its development efforts.
Giving a lecture on “The successful practice and world significance of China’s reform and opening up”, a research fellow of the University of International Business and Economics, Mr Zhu Shenghao, attributed China’s fast economic growth to participation in international trade, overseas markets creating demand for domestic production, and the country’s huge domestic market.
The government, he explained, created a pro-business environment, introduced fiscal and industrial policies.
He explained that the fast economic growth of China between 1980 and 2018 saw a yearly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 9.4 per cent.
In spite of that growth, the country still had to grapple with rural poverty and therefore through a deliberate and sustained programme introduced interventions to alleviate poverty.
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