2018年CRI Delegates urge more Africa-China poverty reduction cooperation

 

With 40 years of effort, China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty. The rural poor population decreased from about 99 million in 2012 to 30 million in 2017.

Government officials, scholars, and representatives from international organizations gathered in Guizhou Province on Wednesday and Thursday to share experiences regarding poverty reduction and sustainable development. The meetings took place in Bijie County, once listed by UNESCO as being a place 'unsuitable for people to live.'

The field trip is part of the China-Africa Cooperation - Poverty Reduction and Development Conference. To discuss more on this, our reporter Xu Yawen joined us from Bijie, Guizhou province.

Q1: In the past two days, you have visited a number of villages in Guizhou province where residents used to suffer from extreme poverty. How are their lives now in comparison to the past? And how did they get out of poverty? 

Yawen: Yes, there are numerous measures and strategies on poverty reduction that I have noticed being practiced by different villages. Today I am going to share one common model. 

That's when the government and enterprises cooperate and build a system that hails "industrial development, plus relocating residents out of poor areas, plus creating job opportunities and skills training centers for poverty-stricken people." 

When we visited the Evergrande Xingfu Er'cun resettlement village, a father surnamed Zhou told me that with help from government and enterprise, his family's annual household income and their living condition has improved dramatically.

For instance, in the past, this couple only made a few thousand yuan every year; today their annual household income is more than thirty thousand yuan. They used to live in the mountains, where sometime there were problems to get clean water and stable electricity. Also, there was a lack of access to public transportation due to the geographic¹ factors of Bijie City. Its karst topography led to poor soil and uneven² land, as 92% of the region is in the mountains. However, today the family has been relocated by the government and lives in a brand new two-floor single-family house nearby their old house, with full furniture, and it's pretty much for free. 

Most importantly, there used to be lack of job opportunities, so Mr. Zhou and his wife had to leave for big cities to find work. But today they work at the nearby vegetable greenhouses and cattle breeding farms that were developed by enterprise and the government. 

Now it's not hard to understand how the poverty rate has dropped from 56% to around 9% over the past three decades in Bijie City. 

Q2: What are the standards used to evaluate poverty reduction? For instance, in what kind of situation would they say, 'Ok, now this family can be taken off of the poverty list?'

Yawen: There is an evaluation³ system and a number of requirements that you have to go through before being moved off of the poverty list. 

For example, some very basic conditions require that people have easy accesses to safe drinking water, electricity, and livable housing conditions, as well as skills for employment, access to education, full coverage⁴ of rural social insurance for seniors, and each family will have one to two income sources. 

In the villages, there should be scheduled buses, access to phone networks and cable, village clinics and medical care or medical assistance, activity rooms, and at least 30 thousand yuan income from the collective economy.

Q3: Can these models of poverty reduction in China be copied by other developing countries, such as in Africa? 

Yawen: I think so. During the trip, I spoke⁵ with the Former Minister of Agriculture from the Republic of Uganda, Ms. Victoria Sekitoleko. She told me that she really liked the idea of the vegetable greenhouse, and as a farmer's daughter and also an expert in agriculture for many years, she believes that the business model can be implemented⁶ in Uganda. 

And according to the operational manager of the vegetable greenhouse, the education level of workers there is about junior high. So it doesn't require a higher education background. It'll be easy to learn.

Q4: What do visitors on this field trip think of the opportunities for Africa-China cooperation in poverty reduction and development under the framework of "Belt and Road"?

Yawen: One story was shared by Clifford Tandari, the Morogoro Regional Administrative⁷ Secretary in Tanzania. He mentioned that under the framework of the "Belt and Road," China Agricultural University has established a demonstration⁸ center and research institution in Tanzania to help local people to improve the agricultural technology. As a result, now local farmers can produce twice as much agricultural product as before. The poverty rate has been decreased, and many farmers now can even afford to send their children to private schools. More importantly, those skills can be copied and implemented at another ten villages to solve more poverty related issues.

Feng Yong, the Deputy Director General of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center of the Ministry⁹ of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in China, said that poverty reduction is more than delivering technologies. It's also about helping¹⁰ local farmers to develop industries. Only by combining technologies and industries, that's how the cooperation can be sustainable.

1 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

2 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

3 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

4 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

7 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

8 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

9 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。