Speech at the Poverty Eradication Award Ceremony

Your Excellency respectable Vice Premier Hui, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

It is a great pleasure to stand before you today to accept, on behalf of the World Bank, the first Poverty Eradication Award made by the Government of China to an international agency.  I know that the President of the Bank, Mr. James Wolfensohn, and all Bank staff who have worked on China since China joined the Bank in 1980, are deeply honored by the friendship and recognition that this award exemplifies.

I should add that we are also deeply humbled.  Since 1980, the Government of China has achieved poverty reduction on a scale that has no parallel in human history.  By quadrupling per capita income in about 20 years, China lifted more than 220 million citizens out of poverty, accounting for about 75 percent of poverty reduction in the developing world.  

The Bank has had only a small role in this dramatic success.  Bank loans and credits have involved extremely modest amounts by Chinese standards, and the impact of our projects has been felt mostly through example - of improved policies, new technologies, or more efficient management methods - rather than through the roadways, water supply systems, or environment protection works that we actually financed.  We have also worked alongside Chinese experts in a large number of analytical tasks which we hope have helped to improve macroeconomic management and support institutional reforms required for China's successful transition to a market economy and sustained poverty-reducing growth.  

But, of course, it is the Chinese who have made effective use of the modest contributions that the Bank—and many other partners—have made; it is the Chinese who have implemented poverty reduction programs on a large scale and in an aggressive and sustained manner over many years; and so it is to the Chinese that honors such as this honor today properly belong.

As China has increasingly taken a leadership role in the international community, our relationship has evolved from one where the Bank shared its international experience with an emerging China to one where China is increasingly sharing its experiences and its thinking on global development issues with the Bank and the rest of the world.  The Global Conference on Poverty Reduction, held in Shanghai in May 2004, is the latest example of China's growing prominence in international developmental issues.

Along with the achievements of the last two decades, there have emerged several challenges.  Serious environmental problems threaten to impede future growth; inequality and vulnerability have increased; and poverty reduction has slowed, particularly among ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and people in remote rural areas.  Today - building on our analytical work and our experiences in the Southwest and the Qinba Mountains poverty projects - we are working with the Government and our other partners, such as DFID, to try to provide preferential poverty-reducing assistance, including health care and educational services, to these remaining poor.  They too deserve a chance to participate in China's extraordinary growth.

On behalf of Mr. Wolfensohn and all Bank staff who are friends of China, I express our deep gratitude for the honor that you have bestowed on us, and I wish you every success in your future efforts to eradicate poverty and bring prosperity to all Chinese citizens.

Thank you.