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Country Brief
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|  | | | | | | | Quick Facts | | Figures in italics refer to most recent period other than that specified | | Source: World Development Indicators 2007 | More >> |
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| | | | | | | Since initiating the reforms and open policy, China has achieved tremendous success. Growth of about 9.7 percent per annum since the late 1970s has helped to lift several hundred million people out of absolute poverty, with the result that China alone accounted for over 75 percent of poverty reduction in the developing world over the last 20 years. Between 1990 and 2004 the number of people living on a dollar per day fell by 246 million, while total population rose by over 156 million. The estimated number of people living on a dollar per day fell to 101.2 million in 2006, according to the latest East Asia & Pacific Update - Will Resilience Overcome Risk? Besides raising incomes, China 's market-oriented reforms over the last two decades also dramatically improved the dynamism of both the rural and urban economies and resulted in substantial improvements in human development indicators. Official estimates of the adult illiteracy rate fell by more than half, from 37 percent in 1978 to less than 10 percent in 2005, and, indicative of health indices, the infant mortality rate fell from 41 per 1,000 live births in 1978 to 23 in 2005.
Nevertheless, substantial challenges remain. More than 128 million Chinese, many in remote and resource-poor areas in the western and interior regions, still have consumption levels below a dollar per day, often without access to clean water, arable land, or adequate health and education services./1 The rate of poverty reduction has fallen since the mid-1990s, as the country tackles remaining, and often more intractable, sources of poverty, including poverty concentrated in geographically disadvantaged regions and the emergence of increasing urban poverty. China also faces ongoing and emerging challenges related to its continued rapid growth – growing income inequality, economically lagging western and northeast regions, unsustainable resource exploitation, and issues related to growing regional and global economic integration. Many of these challenges require action on complex systemic issues - like the financial sector and the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) - in order to spur greater efficiency and innovation while maintaining macroeconomic balances. Addressing disparities in human development between regions and particular counties will also require better targeted and higher quality service delivery. Further, while China 's environmental program has had notable successes, for example, in reducing industrial air and water pollutant emissions and reversing deforestation, two decades of phenomenal growth have taken a serious toll on the rural natural resource base and the urban environment. China 's rapidly growing and industrializing economy has increasing implications for the region and the globe, including China 's export competitiveness, expanding trade integration, ability to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), and demand for imports of commodities and energy. back to top | |  | | | Click to enlarge image |
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| | | | China 's 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010) forms the current basis for the Government's economic and social development efforts. In continuity with the 10th Five Year Plan, the 11th Plan aims to sustain the rapid and steady development of China's "socialist market economy" while in addition achieving the "five balances" (between rural and urban development, interior and coastal development, economic and social development, people and nature, and domestic and international development) and making economic and social development more people-oriented, comprehensive, balanced and sustainable. The 11th Plan includes two key quantitative targets: First, it aims to achieve annual GDP growth of 7.5 percent, with the goal of doubling 2000 GDP per capita by 2010.
Second, it aims to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20%, and the total discharge of major pollutants by 10 percent, by 2010.
It also includes a number of strategic priorities and major tasks, including: rebalancing China 's pattern of growth; deepening reforms and opening further to the outside world; constructing a "new socialist countryside;" promoting more balanced development among the different regions; and increasing the capacity for independent innovation.
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| | | | | | | | The Bank Group's current assistance program aims to help: Integrate China into the world economy, by deepening its participation in multilateral economic institutions, reducing internal and external barriers to trade and investment, and contributing to its overseas development efforts.
Reduce poverty, inequality and social exclusion through promoting balanced urbanization, sustaining rural livelihoods, and expanding access to basic social and infrastructure services, particularly in rural areas.
Manage resource scarcity and environmental challenges through reducing air pollution, conserving water resources and optimizing energy use (partly through pricing reforms), improving land administration and management, and observing international environmental conventions.
Deepen financial intermediation by expanding access to financial services (especially among small- and medium-sized enterprises), developing the capital markets, managing systemic risks, and maintaining financial stability.
Improve public and market institutions by improving firm competitiveness, reforming public sector units, and rationalizing intergovernmental fiscal relations.
In support of these objectives, the Bank's program is carried out through three main instruments: loans for physical investments; loans and grants - often provided by bilateral partners and administered by the World Bank - for technical assistance; and non-financial services in the form of analytical reports, policy advice, workshops and training.
These instruments are used singly or in combination as appropriate to the specific objective. back to top | | 
| | | | Better management of water resources led to higher crop yields, diversification into higher-value crops and increased social status and employment opportunities for many women. Read more | |
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| | | More than 2.5 million people in four of the poorest provinces were lifted out of poverty. Through sustainable farming practices, incomes doubled, employment diversified and the degraded environment was revitalized. Read more | |
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| | | | | | The lending program supports key Government priorities in infrastructure, rural poverty reduction, and natural resource management with financial resources as well as with knowledge and capacity building embedded in lending projects. Since the first loan in 1981 supporting development of Chinese universities, theWorld Bank's cumulative lending to Chinaby June 30, 2007was nearly US$42.2billionfor a total of 284development projects. Seventyof these projectsare under implementation,making China 's portfolio one of the largest in the Bank.
World Bank-supported projects can be found in almost all parts of China and in many sectors of the economy, with the current portfolio concentrated in transportation, urban development, rural development, energy, and human development.
Transport projects focus on connecting the poorer inner provinces to the dynamic coast; urban projects focus on urban transport, sustainable water supply, and sanitation; and energy projects on meeting the economy's growing power needs.
Lending in support of the social sectors and pro-poor rural development has been maintained in recent years through innovative blending of the Bank's International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) resources with grants from Britain 's Department of International Development (DfID). China is among the World Bank's best-performing member countries in terms of project implementation .
In the fiscal year ending June 2007, the Bank lent China about US$1.641 billion for 10 projects including: - Sichuan Urban Environment Project, which aims to assist Sichuan Province toimprove core urban functions in four of its second-tier cities by removing infrastructure bottlenecks hampering land development, transport and the environment ;
- Fujian Highway Sector Investment Project, which aims toassist Fujian Province in increasing the effective use of the road infrastructure to support its social and economic development by enhancing its rural roads network; reducing transport costs; and facilitating the interconnection across China's coastal provinces;
- Guangxi Integrated Forestry Development and Conservation Project, which aims toassist Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in improving the effectiveness of its forest management and institutional arrangements in timber production, watershed protection and nature reserves management and to enhance the conservation of globally significant biodiversity in selected areas;
- Third National Railway Project, which will provide a major increase in capacity to the Liupanshui-Zhanyi section of the Guiyang-Kunming railway line, improving the service quality of passenger as well as freight transport by halving the transit times and enabling operation of double-stack container trains;
- Second Shandong Environment Project, which will promote the sustainable improvement of the environmental conditions in nine participating municipalities, counties and cities in Shandong Province, and reduce land-based pollution along the Yantai coast and the Bohai Sea;
- Shaanxi Ankang Road Development Project, which will support efforts to improve road transport in Shaanxi Province in western China ;
- Micro and Small Enterprise Finance Project, which aims to support China's efforts to promote credit flows to micro and small businesses (MSE), by helping the China Development Bank develop a new business line involving wholesaling of MSE subsidiary loans and provide related technical support to participating financial institutions;
- Western Provinces Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Project , which will increase access of poor participating communities in Sichuan and Shaanxi Provinces to sustainable and equitable water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion services, by adopting an integrated and participatory approach, which can be replicated in other provinces; and
- Second Liaoning Medium Cities Infrastructure Project, which aims to assist eight medium-sized cities in Liaoning Province in improving the performance and sustainability of water supply, wastewater and solid waste services. Enhanced wastewater and solid waste services will also help reduce pollution into the Bohai Sea and contribute to improving Bohai Sea water quality .
See constantly updated WB lending data
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| | | | K nowledge sharing and transfer are central to the China-Bank Group relationship—both through helpingChina to access global development experiences and knowledge and through supporting analysis and dissemination of China's own economic growth and poverty reduction experiences to other countries. The Bank is supporting a broad range of analytical and advisory activities to assess specificChina challenges in light of global experience, to facilitate national and global policy discussions, and to lay the groundwork for future development investments and other activities. The Bank provides analytical support to sustain effective macroeconomic management, reduce systemic risks in the financial system, and improve the environment for private sector development. The Bank is assisting in the assessment of underlying constraints – in the investment climate, the fiscal transfer system, social service delivery, social protection systems, urbanization, and other areas – that restrict growth and service delivery in lagging regions in western and northeasternChina. The Bank is also providing analytical and advisory work to further improve the efficiency and sustainability of natural resource use. back to top
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| | | | A three-year rolling cooperation program between China andthe World Bank is reviewed and updated once a year. The Ministry of Finance is the chief counterpart agency for all World Bank Group operations in China. The National Development and Reform Commission also plays a central role in program formulation. Program proposals may be submitted by either side. All project proposals are thoroughly appraised technically, economically, financially, environmentally and socially before being submitted for final approval by both lender and borrower. For analytical and advisory work, an annual program of major activities is agreed, supplemented by ad hoc requests from the Government for work on emerging issues. The World Bank's China program is managed through its office in Beijing. Partnership with other donors has become increasingly important in the World Bank's China programming. As noted, DFID provides crucial financial resources as well as project design knowledge and experience that have been integrated with Bank assistance in preparing projects, co-financing, and undertaking analytical and advisory work. DFID's partnership has been particularly active in supporting the Bank's rural and human development lending programs. In these areas, DFID's grant resources reduce the cost of Bank assistance and help to enable projects targeting populations and regions that are less well off economically and socially. Such partnerships are particularly important given that China has not been able to borrow from the Bank on more concessionary IDA terms since it was graduated from IDA on July 1, 1999.
For more information about World Bank studies and reports on China, click here.
For more information about the World Bank’s work in China, visit: www.worldbank.org/cn back to top
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/ 1 A number of methodologies exist for determining absolute poverty. One common international standard - income of US$1 a day - puts the number of income poor inChina in 1999 at around 100 million. However, as a gauge of a household's standard of living, consumption is often a more telling indicator, and that is the approach used here. | | | | | |
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