Ma Semai (C) and her colleagues make embroidery works at an embroidery workshop in Daban Town of Dongxiang Autonomous County, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture of northwest China's Gansu Province, May 30, 2020. Ma, 36-year-old and of the Dongxiang ethnic group, is one of the female embroiderers working in a traditional embroidery workshop established by local government as an approach to poverty reduction. The workshop has employed over 80 local women from the Dongxiang ethnic group who are good at embroidery, and has also attracted nearly 200 local female villagers to complete its orders at home. (Photo by Ma Xiping/Xinhua)
China's poverty alleviation achievements "gave a hope to the developing countries in rest of the world including Pakistan to look up to a model to follow," a Pakistani expert has said.
"China had set the target of poverty alleviation in 2020, and the admirable thing is that it achieved it despite pandemic," said Ghulam Samad, senior research specialist at the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Institute.
According to a report from the International Monetary Fund, the global economy is projected to contract by 4.4 percent in 2020, while China's economy is expected to grow by 1.9 percent, the only major economy to register positive growth in the pandemic-hit year.
"There is a lot for the world to learn from the Chinese experience of poverty alleviation," said Samad, stressing particularly "the sincerity of the leadership to the cause of serving people and making their life better, and formation of a comprehensive strategy and policy to achieve it."
Aerial photo taken on May 25, 2020 shows a view of Chonglou Village in Dacai Township of Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Located in the northwestern part of Guangxi, Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County is the only autonomous county for the Maonan ethnic group nationwide. The Maonan ethnic group is one of the country's 28 ethnic groups with a smaller population. About 70 percent of Maonan people, or 64,500, live in Huanjiang County. The poverty headcount ratio in Huanjiang dropped to 1.48 percent by the end of last year. The county was removed from the country's list of impoverished counties in May. Based on the Maonan people's poverty alleviation situation across the country, the ethnic group has gotten rid of poverty as a whole. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)
China's great success in poverty alleviation and its expanding economy, the Pakistani expert summarized, lies in bridging "the gap between the rich and poor" and "providing basic necessities to all people of the country."
Days ago, with the final nine counties shaking off poverty, China has removed all its 832 impoverished counties nationwide from the poverty list, a globally significant milestone of poverty reduction for the world's most populous country.
"The lives of people get a lot better when the leadership work for them and fulfill the promises made to the public," Samad said.
